Incentives from the government for cab aggregators to run cabs on electric mobility may be on its way. According to a report in the Economic Times, the government may soon implement a separate electric taxi policy for cab aggregators.
The policy might have incentives like tax waivers, zero toll on highways and no permits. This will also be applicable for electric bus shuttle and auto-rickshaw services.
Speaking to ET, road transport and highways Minister Nitin Gadkari told ET that they are working on a policy to encourage use of commercial electric vehicles for city transport that will remove all necessary permits otherwise needed to run commercial vehicles, including taxis. He added that it has the potential to transform the electric mobility sector and that he has proposed various subsidies for electric vehicles and is already in talks with the finance ministry to get the necessary exemptions.
However, there still are several factors like higher cost of vehicles, lack of charging facilities and dearth of facilities for ecofriendly disposal of batteries to curb pollution that need to be addressed to get more people to buy electric vehicles in India.
However, Gadkari said that he is working with the power and renewable energy, heavy industries and petroleum ministries to help find a solution quickly to provide an efficient charging system.
In fact, the government is also in initial talks with SoftBank for a low interest funding of two lakh electric buses for public transport.
The report states that India wants to cut down a ballooning Rs 7 lakh crore import bill. And adding electric buses and vehicles along with ethanol and other green fuel could be the solution, said Gadkari.
“Promoting electric vehicles is priority of our government. We want electric buses, autorickshaws and other vehicles to ply in the country. We are engaged in initial talks with SiftBank for loans at low interest rates for a green project,” Gadkari added.
All this is part of India’s target of moving to 100% electric mobility by 2030.
In fact, India’s first multi-modal electric vehicle project and Ola electric charging station was launched in Nagpur on Friday.
As part of the pilot project, a fleet of 200 electric-powered public transport vehicles will be run on cab aggregator Ola’s app platform in Nagpur.
Mahindra Electric too, has manufactured 100 e2o electric taxis while Kinetic Green Energy and Power Solutions has supplied 100 e-rickshaws, Kinetic Safar.