Govt to set up fund to manufacture lithium batteries for EVs

Government will set up a Technology Development Fund to promote manufacturing to lithium batteries in the country to help reduce cost of electric vehicles, Union Minister Anant Geete said today.
Stressing upon the need to move towards 100 per cent electric and hybrid mobility, Heavy Industry Minister Geete said: "25 per cent cost of an electric vehicle comprises of lithium battery. We don't have adequate number of lithium batteries available. If we import lithium batteries it raises the cost of lithium batteries significantly".
"We are establishing a Technology Development Fund which will help in promotion of (manufacturing) lithium batteries in India for which a sizeable amount has been agreed in-principle by the Finance Ministry".

The Minister said the desired response has not come through on electric four wheelers in the last one year. However, he said, the response on two-wheelers has been good.
"The demand of two wheeler electric scooters has risen significantly. We expect the four wheeler demand also to rise," Geete said, adding that the Government will provide funds to establish charging stations.
He said the Centre needs support of state governments for success of FAME-India scheme as states have to provide requisite infrastructure like charging stations at public places.

Besides, on the announcements regarding levy of cess and tax at source on luxury cars, Geete said these "will not have a significant negative impact on sales" as it will be offset by increased investments in the infrastructure sector like road, transport and highways.

"No new incentive for auto sector in the Budget. However, a provision of Rs 97,000 crore has been made in Budget towards roads sector which will indirectly benefit automobile industry," he said.
The government has decided to impose 2.5 per cent cess on diesel vehicles of length not exceeding 4 meter and engine capacity not exceeding 1,500cc, while higher engine capacity and SUVs as well as bigger sedans were slapped with a cess of 4 per cent on the value of the car.
These are over and above a cess of 1 per cent on petrol/ LPG/CNG driven vehicles of length not exceeding 4 meter and engine capacity not exceeding 1,200cc.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also proposed to collect tax at source at the rate of 1 per cent on purchase of luxury cars exceeding value of Rs 10 lakh.
Besides, Geete said Rs 3,000 crore will be spent to roll out the Capital Goods Policy which the Heavy Industry Ministry plans to implement in the next six months.
The first-ever policy for the sector approved last month envisages increasing exports to 40 per cent of production, from the current 27 per cent, while increasing the share of domestic production in India's demand to 80 per cent from 60 per cent, potentially making India a net exporter of capital goods.