Electric Vehicles

The industry body has recommended a series of measures including a continuation of FAME II Scheme to 2025, short-term booster incentives for consumers and support for in-house R&D to boost the electric vehicle sector. 

The industry needs to cut a dependence on electric vehicle battery imports from China, according to the road transport minister, who said the government is looking to support research into alternatives to lithium-ion technology.

The near-term outlook for electric vehicles (EVs) remains bleak owing to supply and demand headwinds coupled with the expectation of sluggish investment to scale up the support ecosystem.

Under the brand name EZ Charge, Tata Power has already installed 170 fast and smart-charging points for electric vehicles in more than 20 cities across the country.

As per the MoU, the state-owned power producer along with the oil and gas producer shall explore setting up of renewable energy projects in India and overseas, and sustainability, storage, e-mobility and ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) compliant projects.

EV sales are set to be 1.7 million off because of the economic fallout of the Covid-19 crisis, however analyst BloombergNEF predicts that will be less of a hit than the anticipated fall in sales of conventional cars, increasing the penetration of electric models into the overall market.

The market will be driven by shared-mobility electric car deployment and will see annual growth of up to 61.7% for battery management systems.

Industry body FICCI has recommended an extension of the FAME II Scheme by at least one year to 2023 as it feels change in the consumer behavior can impact the demand for electric vehicles (EVs) in the short term.

The projects shall be co-funded by India’s Department of Science & Technology and the European Commission’s Innovation and Networks Executive Agency. The aim is to make energy supply cleaner, more efficient and affordable by smartly integrating large amounts of renewable energy in local energy systems. Proposals can be submitted till September 1.

Australia based Neometals and India’s Manikaran Power—which announced their collaboration on India’s first lithium refinery last year—have also doubled the proposed refinery capacity to 20,000 tonnes per annum of lithium hydroxide.