Centre's new electric vehicle policy to be open to all companies

The policy primarily aimed to boost EV manufacturing in the country by top global players such as Tesla, VinFast, BYD among others

The Centre plans to allow all companies, including existing automakers, to make greenfield investment commitments under the recently announced electric vehicle (EV) policy, a senior government official said on Friday.

This will be clarified and announced as part of the detailed guidelines that are being finalised by the heavy industries ministry. “The 

second round of industry consultations will start,” the official said.
 

The comment comes close to a month after US-based EV major Tesla’s Elon Musk canceled plans to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi stating “very heavy Tesla obligations”. His visit will be delayed to later this year.

"They (Tesla) are just silent.. the (EV) policy was always meant for everybody," the official said

The EV policy, announced in March, entails lowering import duty on original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) that commit to investing at least $500 million and set up a manufacturing plant within three years. They are also required to achieve 25 per cent domestic value addition within the initial three years and 50 per cent by their fifth year of operation in the country.

The policy primarily aimed to boost EV manufacturing in the country by top global players such as Tesla, VinFast, and BYD, among others.

The first round of stakeholder consultation after the announcement of the policy in April saw the presence of Indian carmakers, such as Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra, as well as global companies, including VinFast, Mercedes Benz, BMW, Kia, Toyota, and Volkswagen.

“There will be no additional benefits for existing carmakers. Benefits of import duty, subject to certain local commitments, are for all new investments,” the official said.