The Indian government has majorly diverted its attention towards the adoption of electric vehicles and is now looking to promote the adoption of the same on a massive scale. To make this a reality, it has initiated talks with the one party that is highly interested in pumping capital into the country’s economy – SoftBank.
According to several reports, it is presently being said that the centre is talking to the Japanese telecom giant for a low-interest funding of around 2 lakh buses that will be deployed as public transport around the nation. This is the next big step from the government after replacing most diesel buses with CNG ones in the past years. And this is even more significant because it will soon only involve natural energy – when we switch from electricity generation using coal to the wind or solar energy.
The government has already partnered with Ola, who counts SoftBank as one of its leading investors, and has inaugurated India’s first multi-modal electric vehicle project in Nagpur earlier this week. The inauguration was graced by the presence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport, Highways & Shipping, Government of India, who celebrated the third anniversary of Modi government with this initiative.
Talking about this ambitious initiative, Gadkari in a statement said:
Promoting electric vehicles is the priority of our government. We want electric buses, autorickshaws, and other vehicles to ply in the country. We are engaged in initial talks with SoftBank for loans at low-interest rate for a green project.
Under this initiative, Ola has kicked off a pilot project with a huge fleet of 200 vehicles. This includes everything ranging from taxis, buses to e-rickshaws and autos as well. Its long-standing partner Mahindra has provided the ride-hailing giant with around 100 e20 plus vehicles to commence the operations. Rest of the fleet is being procured from large OEM partners including Mahindra, Tata, Kinetic, BYD, and TVS amongst others.
Ola is said to have invested around ₹50 crores to build its electric vehicle fleet and set up 50 charging points at four different locations across Nagpur. Now, the Modi government is following along the same lines and is planning to open charging stations across the country to increase feasibility of electric transport. It is also pouring capital into research for manufacturing lithium and other eco-friendly batteries at cheaper rates, and further plans to produce green fuel.
If this action plan is successful then India will be able to curb two very important things – the growing problem of pollution in the country and the ballooning Rs 7 lakh crore per annum crude import bill. The ministry believes that the addition of both private and public electric transport vehicles, utilizing ethanol and other green fuels, could be an effective solution. It will also enable the government to further reduce the average ticket size by 50% in the country.
This is also one of the prominent reasons because of which the government has been insistently inviting leading electric vehicle maker, Tesla, to set up one of its monstrous Gigafactories in the nation. Gadkari has not only proposed the same but has also visited the automaker’s factories in the United States to invite them to India. He has offered the company land close to the port to make it easier for them handle import and export in the Asian region.
Elon Musk had previously proposed that Tesla would be stepping foot in India in Summer of this year and this had enthusiasts brimming with excitement. Though there has been confusion about local sourcing norms on Musk’s part but Indian government has clarified that no such norms will be applicable to Tesla and they are free to kick start operations in the nation, as per their needs.
