Automobile industry should focus on electric vehicles manufacture, says Nitin Gadkari

Urging the Indian automobile industry to focus on manufacturing electric vehicles, Nitin Gadkari, the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, said on Wednesday: “We have to make India the global hub of electric automobile manufacturing. This is difficult but not impossible.” The automotive industry should focus on the indigenous development of technology as well, opined the union minister at the launch of Bajaj Auto’s first electric scooter.

But while encouraging for the development of electric vehicles, Gadkari did not miss to assure the automobile industry that there is no ban on petrol and diesel vehicles. He only pointed out that India’s fuel import bill touched INR 7 lakh crore, which is a big amount for India’s economy.

According to him, the consumer in the future would choose electric vehicles if there were better products in the market. He said, “People are going to form queues to buy electric [vehicles] in the future. Right now Bajaj is exporting 40% of its vehicles. I am sure that the export of its electric scooters will be 10% more than this.”

Gadkari also stressed the need for the local manufacture of automobile technology. He said, “Lithium-ion battery will be made in India and its price will be reduced. When mobile phones were introduced they were very expensive, look at its price now. So, more competition means better price for consumer.”

Also, logistic cost, capital cost, and power cost need to be reduced for offering cars at a competitive price. “If we reduce all three costs, we can become very competitive in the world market,” said Gadkari.

While talking about the new scrappage policy, Gadkari said that it would ease the availability of waste materials and that too at a cheaper price. Those waste materials could be recycled, resulting in reducing the cost of materials like aluminium, which in turn would lower the car price.