The Minister was speaking at
the 3rd Catalyst Conference on growth in E-Vehicle industry in Bengaluru. Addressing
the automotive industry members present at the conference, Geete sought to
assure the auto industry that his ministry would take them along to adopt
electric mobility. "I want to clarify here once again, as I have done at
various other forums that my ministry has never set a deadline to achieve 100%
electrification of mobility by 2030. No developed country has achieved even 30%
electric mobility. We need not hurry, but we have to work towards achieving
maximum electric mobility. At the same time we do not want to substitute import
of crude oil with import of batteries as today most of lithium ion batteries
are imported from China. We need to make batteries in India."
"After PM's 'Make in
India' call, when we announced FAME in April 2015, the Auto Industry responded
positively and also many new entrepreneurs came into the field to make 2, 3
wheeled e-vehicles and even e-buses. Electric-mobility has given opportunity to
new entrepreneurs. Bangalore has embraced electric vehicles faster than other cities.
The talk of 100% electric-mobility by 2030 created unrest in the Auto industry.
Auto industry has made maximum investment by any sector in India. We need to
take them along to make any vision successful and there is no need to panic.
But we have to keep in mind that electric-mobility is the future and have to
work towards that," said Geete
The minister added that the
consumer should get good quality vehicles at an affordable price and not just
cheap vehicles. He assured the auto industry of all cooperation from his
ministry and thanked the organisers of EV Expo South and ICAT for organising
this conference and the forthcoming Expo.
The expo was attended by more
than 250 people including policy makers, automotive OEMs, automotive component
manufacturers, automotive start-ups, suppliers, academia, test agencies,
consultants, aggregators, technology companies and media. The major Automotive
OEMs present were TKML, Mahindra Electric, Volvo India, Tata Motors, Maruti
Suzuki, Hero Moto Corp, TVS etc.