Campaign to run down electric vehicles sad: Piyush Goyal

Piyush Goyal

Some companies in India are engaged in a campaign to run down electric vehicles in order to promote their hybrid cars in the country, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday, adding that it is sad that hybrid cars are being promoted at the expense of electric cars.

Addressing the Global Mobility Summit here, the Minister said that the companies pushing hybrid vehicles are actually promoting technology that is "second best".

"We saw the progression from petrol cars to hybrid cars, and it is extremely sad that there is a campaign to promote hybrid cars at the expense of electric cars. I urge those companies to quickly make electric cars instead of hawking the market with intermediate products," Goyal said.

"The sad part is that the campaign is being run by companies which don't make electric cars. To sell their hybrid cars they are willing to compromise with the best. They want us to settle for the second best just because they don't make electric cars.

"Gone are the days that India will settle for anything which is second best. We want nothing but the best," he added.

Declaring that he is the owner of two hybrid cars, the Minister said these brought "no savings whatsoever".

"So let's look for the best and move out of the psychology and psyche of subsidies and grants and government handholding everything," he said.

The Minister said that considering the cost dynamics in the country and that people deserve the best at affordable prices, the effort should be to make technology the driver of programming, "so that India moves to be a 100 per cent producer of electric vehicles by 2030".

Goyal also said the Centre has decided to bring all the logistics in the government under a common framework to enable more integrated planning under the Commerce Ministry.

"All of us, railways, road, transport, shipping and aviation are working in our own individual areas, but planning for logistics sector in a holistic manner, particularly, with the view to bring down the cost to 7-8 per cent from 12-14 per cent," he said.

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