With focus on EVs, govt plans electric vehicle financing industry: Nitin Gadkari

To make electric vehicle business in India more lucrative, the government is planning to set up institution to fund EV businesses. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said the government also aims to help provide loans to the public transport and commercial vehicle segment.

Nitin Gadkari, who was addressing the India Global Forum 2021 on Thursday, said the government is also planning to encourage construction equipment vehicles to go electric and promises to incentivise them.

Addressing the digital conference, Gadkari said, "The government is planning to set up a financial institution to fund business with a focus on electric vehicles and facilitate new financial instruments for lending to the public transportation and commercial vehicle segment."

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said that the government is giving highest priority for electric vehicles adoption in India. He said, "India's electric vehicles sector has been growing rapidly. The government is supporting domestic electric vehicle manufacturers."

Gadkari also said that the government is trying to bring down the cost of electric vehicles in the country to make it more affordable for the masses. "We have huge domestic demand for electric vehicles. Many startups have started producing electric vehicles," he said. He said that India's research institutions are working on an alternative battery technology for electric vehicles.

Gadkari said that India currently has around 69,000 petrol pumps where electric vehicle charging facility is available. He said that in coming days, India will also use solar energy to charge batteries of electric vehicles.

India's electric vehicle financing industry is likely to be worth ₹3.7 lakh crore by the end of the decade, according to a recent report. The amount is almost 80 per cent of the current retail vehicle finance industry. The report by Niti Aayog had also said that end-users currently face several challenges such as high interest rates, insurance rates and low loan-to-value ratios.