Aimed at promoting the sales of electric vehicles, the central government is planning to set up a charging kiosk at every petrol pump in the country.
Union Minister for Road, Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said that the Centre has decided to set up at least one EV charging station at each of the 69,000 petrol pump.
Gadkari said that the government is undertaking intensive measures to promote electric vehicles in the country. The government has recently decided to reduce GST on electric vehicles to 5%, besides delinking the battery cost of two and three-wheelers from the overall cost of the vehicles, thus bringing down the total cost by almost 30%.
Gadkari explained that electric charging infrastructure is necessary to improve the sales of e-vehicles and that is the reason why the central government has decided to set up one electric charging station at every petrol pump in the country. He expressed hope that more people will opt for electric vehicles once the charging infrastructure improves. He asked the automobile industry to push for manufacturing flex engines that could use petrol or ethanol/CNG as fuels.
The auto industry has made significant strides in terms of development of different designs and new models. He said that strong research and development units, a huge market, stable government framework and bright and young engineering minds are plus points for the country. He added that India already is the largest manufacturer of two-wheelers in the world.
