Local & foreign EV companies will be offered equal incentives: Government officials
India offers to facilitate local manufacturing of electric vehicles will be equal for foreign as well as domestic investors, government officials said, amid concerns raised by automakers in India over possible concessions in import duty to American carmaker Tesla.
Senior government officials in the know told ET that Tesla has sought provisional tariff concessions as a prerequisite for setting up a manufacturing facility in India, but New Delhi is not in favour of any company-specific exemptions. «The government's approach is for the industry as a whole and not for any specific company because we have very strong domestic companies in this sector,» said an official, adding that any incentives offered will be equal for domestic and foreign investors.
The government is in the process of drawing up a policy to incentivise local manufacturing of electric cars, at a time when US EV maker Tesla and its relatively lesser-known Vietnamese rival VinFast are firming up their India entry strategy. While policy guidelines are yet to be finalised, local carmakers said offering concessional tariffs to Tesla will adversely impact investments that have already been made or are being made by them to produce electric vehicles.
EV calculator
How much will I save if I choose an electric vehicle?
SELECT vehicle type
Calculate
A senior industry executive who did not wish to be named said while the industry has not yet formally put forth any objections before the government, several carmakers are concerned that any reduction in import duty will result in an unfair advantage to the American carmaker which has yet to make firm investments here.
Apart from homegrown auto majors like Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra, which already produce EVs
