ARAI (Automotive Research Association of India), the country's leading automotive R&D organization, is reportedly working on a fast charging solution for electric vehicles, revealed by Mahendra Nath Pandey, Minister of Heavy Industries, at a press conference during the ‘Round Table To Promote Electric Mobility' held in Goa on December 4, 2021. The round table was organised to bring stakeholders together to work out strategies to promote the adoption of EVs in India and attract investment in the manufacturing of EVs, batteries, and high-technology automotive components.
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According to the minister, a prototype of the charger is already ready. While its specifications are still under the wraps, the product is likely to be ready by the end of 2022 and the department is in talks with the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to install EV chargers at 22,000 out of an estimated total of 70,000 petrol pumps across India. These EV chargers would be set up at 25 kilometers intervals on highways and within a radius of 3 kilometers in municipalities.
In other developments, the central government has also taken several steps to promote the manufacturing and adoption of EVs in the country. These include reduction of GST on electric vehicles from 12% to 5%; reduction of GST on EV chargers / charging stations from 18% to 5%, exempting EVs from the permit requirement, waiver of road tax on EVs, providing subsidy under FAME II scheme, and Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for automobile and auto components industries of the country, etc.
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