India counts on Japan for eco-friendly cars' logistics: Goyal

India has sought Japan's expertise in providing stable and adequate power across the country, as well as for developing battery-powered cars as part of an ambitious sales target of 6-7 million units, officials said on Monday.

"Grid integration, stability and electrical mobility are major priorities for the government," Power Minister Piyush Goyal said here inaugurating the 7th India-Japan Energy Forum jointly with Japanese Economy and Trade Minister Hiroshige Seko.

"We see 2030 as an important year when we aim that every new car manufactured in India will be an electric vehicle," he told the day-long forum co-hosted by The Energy and Resources Institute (Teri) and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (NEDO) of Japan.

The Indian government launched the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP) 2020 in 2013, which aims to achieve national fuel security by promoting hybrid and electric vehicles in the country.

The target was to achieve sale of six-to-seven million units of hybrid and electric vehicles year-on-year from 2020 onwards.

"We have to ensure that grid stability is maintained as more and more renewable energy, which is intermittent by nature, comes into the grid," Goyal said.

India has set an ambitious renewal energy generation target of 175 gigawatt (GW) by 2022.

"A sustainable partnership with Japan is valuable for both sides ... for India to learn from Japan's expertise in this area and for Japan to bring down the cost of technologies," he said.

Goyal also pointed to the history of technical cooperation between the two nations from the Maruti Suzuki automobiles to the Shinkasen bullet train, the formal agreement for which was signed in November 2016.

In his address, Minister Seko said the combination of Japanese technology and India's skilled workforce would be a "win-win" situation for both countries.

"Japan is helping implement smart grid technologies in India, which is helping to achieve stability in the system," Seko said.

--IANS

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