For Electrical Vehicles (EVs) to become a reality in the short to medium term in India, there is a lot of Government support needed, bound by a comprehensive and well-conceived EV policy which coordinates the activities of multiple departments to grow the ecosystem. Here are some suggestions that the Government should look at to spur both demand and help build out the underlying ecosystem. 1. EV Incentives 2. Charging Station Incentives 3. ICEV Disincentives 4. Public / Private Fleet Incentives 5. Improving EV OEM Product Range & Quality 6. Ancillary Industry Incentives 7. Energy Efficiency Incentives

1. INDIA EV POLICY
Suggestions for increasing adoption

2. 1. EV Subsidy – Promote private sector participation
by giving FAME II subsidy/grants to them directly
without requiring bureaucracy of public sector
tie-up. Monitor EV subsidy – to evaluate who to
give it to – with them showing demonstrated
proof of how it will impact commercial viability of
their business, and what specific benefits will they
pass on to the end-consumer.
2. GST on purchase/leasing of EV/Battery – Reduced
0%/5% GST on purchase AND leasing will allow
OEMs to decouple EV + battery (EV could be
bought upfront, battery leased over a 5 year
period)
3. Motor Vehicle Act modification – Ease EV
Registration process/costs
4. Remove Road Tolls/Taxes – both for Commercial
/ Personal registrations, Offer free Parking in
Govt. authorized parking locations, Give
companies / individuals Income Tax exemptions
for owning EVs
ELECTRIC VEHICLE
INCENTIVES
“The cost of EV is close to 2x the
cost of ICEV equivalent in 4W
category, about 4-5x in Bus
Category, and 1.5x in 2W
category. 50% of the cost is the
battery. EV is expected to have
parity with ICEV in 2025 as
battery prices reduce. Prior to
that, incentives are required to
encourage purchase”

3. CHARGING
INFRASTRUCTURE
INCENTIVES
1. Real Estate Incentives – Give commercial /
residential building tax incentives if they get
“LEEDS platinum” certified by installing EV fast
charging stations in their premises OR mandate
all new commercial / residential buildings to have
EV chargers installed for at at least 25% of
parking bays
2. Give tax incentive for land-owners to lease out
space for purposes of setting up charging
infrastructure
3. Only DERC has a special rate for electricity
consumption for charging. Get CERC to work with
all private / public DISCOMS in the country to
give discounted rates
4. Provide special incentive to new EV charging infra
service providers, who use renewable sources of
energy (even partial) for charging (either wheeled
in, or by setting up captive distributed generation
using solar
“Other than cost, the other
limitation of EV adoption is range
anxiety. Public charging stations
are required in multiple locations
in a city. No player has agreed to
set this up at scale yet, since the
underlying consumer base
doesn’t exist as yet to make
investment sense. Challenges of
rental lease of space, and

4. IC ENGINE VEHICLE (ICEV)
DISINCENTIVE
1. Impose Central Business District (CBD) Cess /
Limitation on using Government Parking
Spaces / Entry Ban on ICEV, EVs being
exempted.
2. Higher tax rates for ICEV purchase vs that of
EV
3. Fuel costs in any case have an escalation
built in for ICEVs
4. Allow commercial EV for freight entry into
roads and at times where ICEV freight
vehicles are not allowed (this would also
allow each commercial EV to be utilized
round the clock, rather than just during
designated freight movement hours.
“Unless consumers (fleet and
individual) see a definite value to
purchasing an EV, and initial
higher cost is offset with other
gains, adoption will be a
challenge. End-users need to see
the disincentive of using
traditional fuel sources”

5. PUBLIC / PRIVATE FLEET
INCENTIVES
1. Give special corporate tax incentive to Ride-
Sharing companies using EVs – and mandate
it translating to lower rate/km charged by
them to consumers/clients as compared to
ICEV
2. Give corporate tax incentive to Fleet owners
(3W, 4W and Bus) if they have minimum 25%
EVs in their fleet
3. Give corporate tax incentive to Companies
who spends at least 25% of their total
transport budget on EVs (irrespective of
whether purchased, leased or using
outsourced fleets/ride sharing services)
4. Promote EV usage in Public Transport.
Mandate at least 25% of fleet of buses of
STUs to be EVs. Give direct subsidy to STU
subsidizing higher capex of EV bus.
“Fleet Operators will find EVs
more suited to their duty-cycles,
as compared to end-users, due to
high upfront costs in EVs.
Incentives and mandates are
needed for many fleet operators
to adopt EV, and incentives to
consumers for using such fleet
services”

6. EV OEM PRODUCT RANGE
AND QUALITY
1. Improve the number of EV product variants,
form-factors and quality of products by
incentivizing existing EV OEMs in
International markets – and ease their entry
into India. India has to get higher range
(high-voltage) EVs in the 4W category into
the country (India by itself will take until
2020 to make them)
2. Remove/Reduce import duty on Foreign
EVs for a period of time, giving a volume /
timeframe based moratorium, with
mandate to ”Make in India” after that time.
If in that period, the company doesn’t setup
local manufacturing in India (creating jobs,
local supply chain) then such rebate /
incentive can be revoked and tax added in
retrospect
“Auto OEMs have invested heavily
in ICEV assembly lines. There’s
not enough EV demand to
replicate / add assembly lines.
There’s a limited number of
Indian EV OEMs, and their
product quality is very inferior.
Foreign OEMs who have
established products face high
import duties making products

7. ANCILLARY INDUSTRY
INCENTIVES
1. Battery Recycling – incentivize companies that get
into “second life” of EV battery business
2. EV Cell Assembly – incentivize plants that set up
Cell Assembly in India
3. Li-ion mineral recycling – incentivize companies
that setup assemblies for retrieving Lithium,
Manganese, Cobalt, Nickel from all types of
batteries used in the electronics industry.
4. Fleet / User Technology Stack development –
incentivize companies that specialize in
developing EV software for the connected vehicle
(ability to track/monitor vehicles, EV performance,
EV parameters, Energy Consumption), and also
for Charging Infra Management (public charger
network availability visualization, booking,
authentication, payments)
5. Support the brand new industry vertical which is
bound to come along side “connected cars” –
which include Traffic visualization services,
Emergency services, Remote maintenance
services, etc).
“While the traditional auto
ancillary industry is bound to be
impacted with ICEVs being
replaced by EVs, especially those
related to traditional engine
component manufacturers, a new
breed of companies need to get
promoted”

8. ENERGY EFFICIENCY
1. EV Energy Efficiency - Operational energy
consumption with AC at various ambient
temperature conditions needs to be studied and
benchmarked. This needs to be reported by all
EV OEMs with road-tests, and not just
certifications in a lab. A government led rating
system needs to be evolved.
2. DC-Charger Energy Efficiency – The charger
efficiency (amount of electricity/energy
consumed to that transferred to the EV) needs to
be reported. A government led rating system
needs to be evolved.
3. Electricity Grid Impact - When widespread
adoption happens is not known. Grid system are
currently not technically ready to communicate
with EVSE (EV Supply/Charging equipment). The
government should mandate network
upgradation. Trials for Vehicle to Grid (V2G) for
excess energy transfer to back to the Grid should
be explored
4. Alternate sources of electricity for charging
needs to be encouraged. Incentivize charging
infrastructure that explores distributed
generation for part of their capacity needs, or
wheels in alternate energy for charging.
“Emission and efficiency norms
for ICEV are available. Energy
Efficiency norms in EVs is
required. Current OEMs may
claim a low kWh/km consumption
in lab tests, but actual usage are
even 2x that. Incentives for better
EV energy efficiency needs to be
given. Impact of EV on Electricity
Grid is not known. Incentive for