As the industry has progressed, the EV sector has witnessed tremendous growth in the previous year. The government also knows that EVs are the future, the new & sustainable way of mobility. Our finance minister has announced a new policy to support the EV industry with the budget revealed yesterday.
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The government has introduced a new battery swapping policy to encourage people to buy such vehicles. The exact details have not been revealed yet, but the private sector will also be motivated towards developing sustainable business models for “Battery energy as a Service”.
Let’s look at the new policy and what the future holds for EVs:
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Battery Swapping Policy
As simple as it sounds with this new policy, EV owners can now replace the discharged battery and replace it with a fully charged one. This saves the large amounts of time spent in charging & waiting. The finance minister also said that this new policy would further formulate inter-operability standards.
Battery swapping technology exists with brands such as Revolt, Hero Electric, Simple Energy & Bounce. The other brands in the market, such as Bajaj, Ola, Ather, do not provide removable batteries yet. It will take some time for all the brands to adapt to the new policy. The industry will have to formulate & engineer network fragments to implement this.
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Let’s see what the brands have to say:
Venu Srinivasan, Chairman, TVS Motor Company, said: “We strongly support the measures to promote clean and green mobility, mainly introducing the battery-swapping policy, which will be instrumental in supporting an efficient EV ecosystem.”
Naveen Munjal, MD, Hero Electric, said: “Hero Electric has always been a strong advocate of standardisation of EV battery packs to accelerate EV adoption. Interoperability standards will help address range anxiety issues, and battery swapping stations will be an asset to the evolving EV ecosystem across the country.”
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Special Mobility Zones
A slight deterrent has been observed for fossil fuels with the additional tax of ₹2 on unblended fuels. This move is justified by the government encouraging the usage of blended fuels; some special mobility zones for zero fossil fuel vehicles have also been proposed.
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Overall there have been no tax breaks for the automobile sector. People expected relief in the form of a slight reduction on the hiked taxes on petrol & diesel.
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Road Development
As far as road development is concerned, an additional 25,000 kilometres is being planned to add to the national highways in the FY2023. This addition will be a plan of the Gatishakti Masterplan of our Prime Minister. This plan also includes improving the postal & railway network and new services under Vande Bharat.
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