Thread by @BiIndia

#India needs Elon Musk’s @Tesla as well as local electric cars to compete⁠ — here’s what Finance Minister’s #Budget2021 may do

#ElectricVehicles

By - @navdeepyadav321

businessinsider.in/budget/news/bu…

2021 is expected to be the year @elonmusk brings the first @Tesla Model-3 to #India, 14 years after its first launch in the US. This is likely to intensify the race in the #ElectricVehicles space among the Indian car makers like Mahindra and Mahindra, Tata Motors and Maruti.

#India has been trying to get its strategy to push #ElectricVehicles at least since the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid) and Electric Vehicles (FAME) 2015 but only with limited success.

People in India refrain from buying #ElectricVehicles because there aren’t enough charging stations. Ghosh said the government has targets to increase the charging infrastructure and he added that “there are few drafts which would hopefully get materialized in the coming budget.”

In the February 2020 budget, Sitharaman had set a target of 2,600 new charging stations across India but the progress is likely to have been set back by the #COVID19 lockdown. As of the latest data, India had 650 places where people could charge the #EVs.

#ElectricVehicles

The big question is will #India sweeten its policy so much that the likes of #Musk may want to ‘make in India’.
While the Narendra Modi government wants foreign investors to put their money in India, his recent policies have also emphasised on strengthening domestic companies.

According to Mitul Shah,Head of Research at Reliance Securities, the custom duty hike in the last budget was done to make #ElectricVehicles cost effective and encourage local manufacturing in the #EV space.