EV prices to reduce to petrol, diesel car levels; no problem with FM giving subsidies to EVs: Gadkari

Addressing the 64th Automotive Component Manufacturers Association annual session on Monday, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said that within the next two years, the cost of electric vehicles (EVs) will be lowered to the level of petrol and diesel vehicles. He also highlighted the government’s efforts to advocate cost-saving fuel technologies and less polluting vehicles.

The minister mentioned that India's advantages include low labour costs, high-quality products, and continuously advancing technology.

He said that consumers can receive a discount of up to 3% on new vehicles when they scrap their old ones. This will further lower the cost of new vehicles and reduce manufacturing costs. He noted the importance of quality and requested manufacturers to maintain efficiency in their products while offering discounts.

According to him, the vehicle scrapping policy is a win-win for improving fuel efficiency and reducing pollution. He added that the Indian market has extremely high competition, and automobile companies will have to offer good prices and higher discounts on vehicle scrapping if they want to do better business.

Gadkari also said that he is not against diesel or petrol but wants India to reduce its fossil fuel imports and transition to cost-effective and environmentally safer alternatives like electric vehicles and biofuels.

He mentioned the recently launched Bajaj CNG bike, which offers a running cost of ₹1 per km, while a petrol bike costs over ₹2.

On subsidies for EVs, Gadkari said that he doesn’t have a problem with the Finance Minister and the Heavy Industries Minister providing subsidies for electric vehicles.

This comes after he said that subsidies are no longer needed for electric vehicle makers while addressing the BloombergNEF summit.

Addressing the BNEF Summit, Gadkari said that initially, the cost of manufacturing electric vehicles was high. However, as demand has increased, production costs have dropped, making further subsidies unnecessary.

"Consumers are now choosing electric and compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles on their own and I do not think we need to provide much subsidy for electric vehicles," the road transport and highways minister had said.