Experts and industry captains have welcomed the Union government’s budget focus on e-vehicles, especially, the introduction of the new battery swapping policy.
“The introduction of the new battery swapping policy and the decision to formulate interoperability standards by the Government will facilitate the faster rollout of battery swapping centres as well as the widespread implementation of batteries as a service. This will save time for electric vehicle owners, reduce initial costs and associate that cost to vehicle usage,” said Rajib Gangopadhyay, Founder & MD, EMotorad.
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He termed battery swapping and infrastructural spending as great initiatives. “This will have to be done in phases and like all other projects, the metro is to see the first set of major deployments and developments under these. To keep the tier 2, tier 3, and rural India’s development at par with the metros at EV adoption, it is a very good move that can help other subsets of EV which might not need heavy infrastructural spend to boost across on last-mile connectivity like the farmers reaching the farmlands, kids commuting to their schools and colleges,” Gangopadhyay said.
However, he said, the need of the hour right now was to make electric mobility accessible to the people and the way to do so is through e-bikes, which offer over 60km of range in a single charge and address range anxiety concerns.
“It is delightful to watch the government’s positive approach towards building the framework for infrastructure that will assist several EV vehicle owners in the long run. However, e-bikes, which require minimal investment for infrastructure, help the remote population of the country for their daily, last-mile commute. Therefore, we look forward to the next budget and the inclusion of e-bikes in the FAME-II scheme to empower people that cannot choose public transportation as a viable commute option. The addition of a year of tax holiday and benefits to startups in this year’s budget has also boosted the morale of budding entrepreneurs and the startup ecosystem,” he added.
Sulajja Firodia Motwani, Founder and CEO, Kinetic Green said, “Budget 2022 is a futuristic budget with focus on deployment of advanced technology like EV, green mobility and digitization. The Budget 2022 is positive for the Electric Vehicle sector, which re-unforced Indian Government’s commitment to accelerating EV and green mobility eco-system in India.”
Motwani said FM has announced that to foster creation of electric vehicle ecosystem, battery swapping policy will be devised. “In order to scale up battery stations, battery-swapping policy will be brought out with inter-operability standards.”
Motwani said there is an announcement on shift to use of public transport in urban areas by clean tech, and with special e-mobility zones. “Green Energy and Clean Mobility systems have immense potential to assist sustainable development & modernise the country. This will further enhance connectivity and digitization of the auto sector and is expected to help automotive in a greater way.”
The Minister, she said, also emphasised that private sector will be encouraged to develop sustainable and innovative models for battery and energy as a service which will increase efficiency in EV ecosystem. I am confident that this move will encourage manufacturers to enhance investments in this sector.
“It is a futuristic budget with focus on greening of economy and digital technology. We welcome this budget and appreciate Government’s steps to promote electric vehicles and tackle pollution in our cities.”
Dr. Akshay Singhal, Founder, Log9 Materials which works in the advanced EV battery-technology domain, said, “Government’s constant push for EVs and climate action is commendable. Openness to accommodate new age business models like battery swapping are a welcome step, financial decoupling of batteries irrespective of swapping will enable faster adoption. It would be exciting to see some great climate focussed debt lines coming in from blended finance. Bringing EVs and batteries into priority lending sector was also expected but missed in this budget.”
Nitin Gupta, President- Sales, Marketing, and CRM (Head) at Mantra Properties and Developers, said, “We welcome the Union budget.. Battery swapping policy has been introduced keeping in mind the electronic energy vehicle system which is again a visionary step towards clean and sustainable energy development policies. Overall, the 2022 Government budget is visionary, sustainable have almost everything with a growth perspective for various sectors.”
Keyword: FM Sitharaman move on e-vehicle sector, especially battery swapping policy, draws praise