In order to promote environmental protection, the government has devised a scheme at Rs200 crore for setting up a body to regulate the automobile production on these lines. The assistance will be extended to companies which manufacture environment-friendly vehicles, it is learnt. The government is understood to have assessed the lack of infrastructure in some companies which yield electric vehicles and costly hybrid versions. Such companies are not able to witness the desired growth in their venture due to the incessant constraints, said the Joint secretary for Ministry of Heavy Industries. The propose body the National Electric Mobility Mission (NEMM) is entrusted with the responsibility of promoting such vehicles to maintain environment. The vehicles will substitute the vehicles coming under petrol and diesel version, which constitute majority volume in the Indian automobile market. The funding for this move will be from cess and from schemes of urban development mission.
The motive of the government in installing this body is to assist the automakers with technology development for curtailing the cost of batteries, thereby reducing the cost by one third of the net price. The NEMM will be constituted consisting of representatives from several ministries like Environment& Forests, Road, Transport & Highways and Science and Technology. The move comes after the failure of impact by electric versions of vehicles, which incur less fuel cost and maintenance cost. Such vehicles have been accorded with incentives on road tax and certain privileges like non-insistence on registration and licenses. The overall production of electric vehicles in India from over a dozen companies come upto 10 lakh per year. The sale however is just 10% of it including hundreds of electric cars from Reva Electric Vehicles of Bangalore. Most companies involved in making electric versions are concerned about the cost involved, which makes it double than the cost of conventional energy vehicles. Toyota and Honda are facing such constraints for their hybrid versions. The Indian auto market is too busy with sale volume witnessing a growth of 34% in cars and 27% in bikes during April-August 2010 than the corresponding period of the last
year.