Govt to come out with e-vehicle policy this fiscal: Goyal

The government will come out with a policy for promotion of electric vehicles this fiscal with an aim to make India a global leader in the segment, Union minister Piyush Goyal said today.
"We will see a very robust policy (for promotion of electric vehicles) in this fiscal," the power and coal minister, who is on a four-day visit to Vienna and London with a business delegation, told PTI in an interview.
"Niti Aayog has drawn up certain ideas but the project is being looked after by the Ministry of Heavy Industries. I am sure that will have all discussions and come up with a robust policy because we want to encourage domestic manufacturing of electric vehicles," Goyal said on the sidelines of the India- Austria Business Forum, jointly organised by Ficci and the Indian Embassy in Vienna and Austrian Economic Chambers.

The government, he said, wants to encourage research and development in the electric mobility sector and aspires to be a leader in the world.
India is looking at having all electric-car fleet by 2030 with an objective of lowering the fuel import bill and running cost of vehicles.
"We have made a policy decision within the three ministries that all the ministerial vehicles and the vehicles used by our PSUs in and around Delhi will be replaced by the electric vehicles," he said.

Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) or some other company will be shortlisted to become an aggregator of these vehicles, Goyal said.

He further said the government is confident that it will be able to come up with such vehicles at a cost not exceeding the current cost of hiring vehicles.
Goyal had earlier said initially the government can handhold the electric vehicle industry for 2-3 years to help it stabilise.
Citing the example of Maruti, which has logged over 30 per cent profit this time, he had explained that the government had supported India's largest car maker initially, which eventually led to development of the big automotive industry in the country.