Industry
No Road Tax, Registration Cost, Free Charging and more for Electric Cars, Hybrids! More on FAME 2edit
The second phase of the FAME 2 scheme that is expected to drive the government’s mission to have 25% per cent of all vehicles sold in 2030 to be electric. The second phase of the Faster Adoption and Manufacture of Electric Vehicles is expected to launch around this month and have a total outlay of Rs 5,500 crore spanning over the next five year.
Expensive lithium-ion batteries put the brakes on India’s EV plansedit
In the absence of a policy, which is still in the drawing board, it is highly unlikely that the share of electric cars and two-wheelers here will rise to government’s targeted 30 per cent of total vehicle sales in 2030 from less than 1 per cent now.
Government plans Rs 50,000 rebate on electric vehiclesedit
At present, electric vehicles cost 2-2.5 times more than their standard variants. There are also concerns about the overall infrastructure available for operating such vehicles and the kilometers they are going to churn out after every charge.
Competition
EV startup Ampere Vehicles to turn profitable this year, says CEOedit
Ampere Vehicles, a Coimbatore-based electric-vehicle startup, is targeting an operating profit in the ongoing fiscal year with expected revenue of Rs 60 crore, founder and chief executive Hemalatha Annamalai said. The company that manufactures electric two-wheelers and three-wheelers will also be soon debuting in the industrial segment.
Zoomcar to focus on subscriptions and electric mobility in 2019: CEOedit
The Indian self-drive and car rental industry has come a long way since American duo David Back & Greg Moran founded Zoomcar in Bengaluru in 2012. As the self-drive service enters its sixth year in operation, it aims to bring 20,000 new car subscribers and touch 20 million unique self-driving user mark by the end of this year on the back of their subscription service, Zap, and other diversification strategies in the micro-mobility segment.
International
China buys one out of every two electric vehicles sold globallyedit
China’s overall car sales might be declining—but electric vehicle sales nearly doubled from the year before to cross one million for the first time. In 2018, China’s electric vehicle (EV) sales, which include battery vehicles and plug-in hybrids, reached 1.2 million. That’s more than half the electric vehicles sold worldwide in the same period, according to data released last week by Germany’s nonprofit Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW).
Porsche is still planning for 20,000 Taycan electric cars – but says it is being conservativeedit
Porsche has been rumored to be planning to significantly increase the production of the Taycan, its first all-electric vehicle. But it now sounds like they are still aiming for 20,000 units the first year – though they think it’s conservative.
Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi’s VC arm invests in EV charging and service solutions companyedit
Alliance Ventures, the strategic venture capital arm of Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi announced a new investment in PowerShare, an electric vehicle (EV) charging platform startup based in China. PowerShare provides an online platform that connects EV drivers, charge point operators and power suppliers to streamline the charging experience. It offers a cloud-based system, enabling suppliers to monitor the demand from vehicles with the supply capacity of the grid and drivers to find available charging stations. Earlier this year, British energy major BP had invested in PowerShare its VC arm.