SMEV moots efficiency linked subsidy for electric vehicles

Electric vehicle makers body SMEV has mooted linking of certified efficiency parameters of speed and range to government subsidies instead of the current proposal of battery capacity-based support. The Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV) said the existing proposal of the government is neither beneficial for consumer nor good for the country as it does not factor efficiency of EVs. The executive body of SMEV in its meeting last week had agreed to propose a formula to the government under which weightage is given to the Central Motor Vehicles Rule (CMVR) certified speed and range of an EV to arrive at a subsidy factor.

"This directly translates into higher subsidies for EVs that consume least amount of batteries to give higher performance," SMEV Director General Sohinder Gill said. The subsidies under this formula will discourage EVs with poor performance and high electricity consumption, he added. Citing example, SMEV said an electric scooter that goes at 70km/hr with a range of 80km will get double the subsidy of an electric scooter that goes at 25km/hr with a range of 70 km.

Under the FAME-II scheme, Department of Heavy Industries had proposed uniform incentive of Rs 10,000 per KWH for all vehicles except buses at Rs 20,000 per KWH. In two-wheelers, only high speed vehicles were proposed to be supported with demand incentives. The phase two of the scheme for promoting EVs and eco-friendly zero emission vehicles in India is yet to be cleared by the Cabinet but it is expected to be taken up in the coming weeks.

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Gill however said the proposal of the government is "neither beneficial for the consumer nor good for the country as it does not factor the efficiency of the EV". "Anyone with a very low efficiency powertrain can get disproportionately higher subsidy merely by adding more batteries to cover up the inefficiency," he said.

On the other hand, "sportier bikes and cars that pack three times the batteries to speed up to 200km/hr may end up claiming 3 to 4 times the subsidy," he added.