Indian Government will Invest $4.1 Billion to Encourage EV and Hybrid Sales

Recent research by the Indian government shows that over the next eight years there will be a national demand for 5 to 7 million electric vehicles, driven by the desire to drastically reduce the vast carbon emissions caused by the combustion engines currently used. The findings also show that introducing this number of electric vehicles will reduce the consumption of fossil fuels by 2.2 to 2.5 million tonnes before 2020.

Due to these predictions, at the recent National Electric Mobility 2020 meeting, the ministers in attendance voted to invest 225 billion rupees ($4.1 billion) into developing the electric and hybrid vehicle industry, with the aim of seeing 6 million low carbon vehicles on roads across the country by 2020.

The investment, which was also approved by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, will be used to develop a network of charging stations, research and development projects, improved infrastructure, a financing unit to help end consumers purchase the cars, and a subsidy scheme to encourage companies to manufacture and sell them.

In support of the EV goal, national motoring manufacturers such as Mahindra & Mahindra, Maruti, and Tata have vowed to produce electricity powered cars.

By. Charles Kennedy of Oilprice.com