Proposed No Road Tax, Green Permit Issuance for EVs: Amitabh Kant

“For India to successfully move away from fossil-fuel dependence oil companies should become the energy companies of the future,” he said.

There should be no road tax for electric vehicles (EVs) and green permit should also be issued for EVs, said Amitabh Kant, Chief Executive Officer, NITI Aayog.

Speaking at the Make in India session of Energy Storage India 2019, Amitabh Kant said, “We have proposed to the Chief Secretaries of the States that there should be no road tax for electric vehicles and issuing green permit for EVs.”

“When the EV revolution happens, India would be impacted in the biggest way. These initiatives are being taken to bring the ownership cost of electric vehicles at par with combustion vehicles. For India to successfully move away from fossil-fuel dependence oil companies should become the energy companies of the future,” he said.

Kant further added that, “Energy storage can also fuel public transport revolution in a big way. We have proposed pay per kilometre model for buses to transform the public transportation system. Also a huge opportunities lies in the conversion of goods mobility fleets to clean fuels such LNG as 78% of goods in India are transported through lorries. India must seize the 81% value that lies in battery manufacturing. Energy storage and battery present a huge opportunity which we should capitalise since India will be driving the growth of the auto sector in the future.”

While addressing the significance of Energy Storage India 2019 in Making India a global hub for advanced energy storage manufacturing, Dr. Rahul Walawalkar, Executive Director, India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA) said, “With the anticipated launch of National Energy Storage and by creating polices for an accelerated energy storage adoption in the country, we can create significant interest for local manufacturing and system integration capabilities. We anticipate the energy storage market in India to grow to 300 GWh by 2025. Both Indian and global supply chain is gearing up to supply to this market. This could result in over USD 5 billion of investment in this sector by 2020.”