‘If you want people to do something, give them free money’- this has been the strategy so far in many countries on incentivizing their population for giving up internal combustion cars in favor of EV.
Norway leads the world in the percentage of electric cars sold because it offers its citizens the highest EV incentives. China is not far behind. Last year it doled out over a billion dollars in EV incentives to encourage its citizens to buy electric cars. Local authorities also offer additional incentives.
But its leaders are rethinking their priorities. They plan to tweak the rules to encourage more long range electric cars and fewer short range vehicles. The new plan under consideration would require vehicles to have at least 125 miles of battery-only range to qualify for any incentives from the national government. The current standard is only 90 miles.
The government wants to ensure automakers will launch models that would be appealing to consumers, hence setting subsidies contingent on minimum driving range requirements.
Owing to such policy moves Beijing Electric Vehicle Co. which is China’s largest electric only vehicle manufacturer has began offering battery swap and rental services to consumers to help reduce purchase costs and ease range anxiety. Its EV300 — a compact car that sells for $12,000 — now has an available plan that allows users to change batteries as often as they want for a monthly fee of $65.00.
India should take a clue from the Chinese experience and design their EV adoption road map accordingly. Incentives should be planned on so as to encourage more long range electric cars and fewer short range vehicles.
Reference- Bloomberg, Cleantechnica, EESI website