An Indian ‘think tank’ has said in a report that its government should reduce taxes and interest rates for loans on electric vehicles.

The National Institution for Transforming India also suggests that the government should establish a battery plant by the end of 2018 and use tax revenues from the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles to set up charging stations for
electric vehicles.

The Transformative Mobility Solutions for India report says: “India’s potential to create a new mobility paradigm that is shared, electric and connected could have a significant impact, both domestically and globally.

“If we accelerate electric-vehicle growth, it will be a disruption for the auto sector and would require investment, but if we are not able to adapt quickly, we risk being net importers of batteries.”

In 2015, India launched a scheme called Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles, under which it offered incentives for ‘clean-fuel technology’ cars to increase their sales to 7 million vehicles by 2020.