India’s Only EV Available to Buy Today – Mahindra Reva e20
EVNews: Not too long ago, India’s Mahindra Reva, the nation’s only EV maker, announced it would scale back its EV efforts due to the government’s inability to move forward with implementing promised incentives for plug-in vehicles.
Mahindra Maxximo Electric –
Planned for Future Launch
Planned for Future Launch
The government had been dragging its heel for seemingly forever on getting incentives in place to make EVs more affordable. This angered Mahindra Reva, so much so that it basically put on hold the upcoming launches of 3 more EVs (Mahindra Reva does currently sell 1 electric vehicle in India: e20).
Well, the government responded by saying an incentive package is coming, but now it won’t be here until April 2014 (India’s government originally promised that incentives would be in place by March 2013).
The incentives expected to be in place next April are less than previously promised, but something is better than nothing. As theFinancial Times reports:
“On an average about Rs 2,000 crore will be provided as incentive, which is a big sum. We are trying to tie-up with the finance ministry, as to how best we can tie-up on incentives. The first two years, it will be low, we have to manage with the budgetary provision, but in the years to come, once the Indian economy will grow faster and the incentive will be higher, government will be much more liberal in offering incentive.”
Now, it should be noted that Rs 2,000 crore ($320 million US) is the total amount expected to initially be set aside for all EVs purchases. That amounts to roughly 1/5 what India stated it would put away for EVs in the past. It’s still a sizeable figure though, so let’s hope India makes good on its promise this time around.
