2011 UNION BUDGET: ELECTRIC AND HYBRID VEHICLES GET A FILLIP
2011 Reva NXR Electric Vehicle
The 2011 Union Budget seems to certainly be a rosy one, at least for the electric and hybrid vehicle space as a slew of measures to reduce the overall cost of Electric and Hybrid vehicles along with popularizing them kicks in. One such measure is the adoption of many smaller cities as EV cities. Through this, the government will earmark many tourist towns which will use electric and hybrid vehicles for transport of tourists.
Along with this, hybrid cars being manufactured in India will be incentivized with a excise duty cut of 5%. Hybrid car part imports also will be exempted from the regular custom duty of 10%. That essentially translates to cheaper spare parts for the likes of the Toyota Prius Hybrid and the Honda Civic Hybrid. Hybrid conversion kits, which will enable conventional cars to be converted to hybrid cars will also see a see the excise duty being cut from 10% to 5%.
Going forward, such kits will thus get cheaper hence making hybrid conversions cheaper. Also, replacement batteries for EVs get cheaper as the central excise duty and the basic custom duty stands waived. Hydrogen powered vehicles also will get a straight 10% waiver on the excise duty front. With these measures, the Indian government hopes that more fuel saving and environment friendly hybrid vehicles will be sold and manufactured in India.
