After months of delay, a National Hybrid Platform (NHP), bringing together members of the automobile industry, academia and tier-I suppliers.
NEW DELHI: The government appears to have shed its hesitation in supporting a hybrid vehicle road map for the country.
After months of delay, a National Hybrid Platform (NHP), bringing together members of the automobile industry, academia and tier-I suppliers, besides government representatives, has been formed.
This body would have a corpus of Rs 700 crore. Of this, half would be provided by the government and the rest by various players in the industry.
They include Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, Eicher Motors, Bajaj Auto and TVS Motor.The NHP, whose role is to facilitate the indigenous development of hybrid vehicles, is headed by M&M’s Arun Jaura.
Hybrids use two fuel sources, one of which is usually an electric battery, and such vehicles have lower emissions as well as reduced operating costs.
Till date, only M&M has declared its intention to come up with a hybrid Scorpio. Most others appear hesitant in the absence of government support. Importing existing hybrid vehicles (such as Toyota Prius and Honda Civic) attract substantial duties, making them unviable.
Speaking to DNA Money, Jaura said that the NHP has already created three verticals: for commercial vehicles, passenger vehicles (including passenger cars) and two- & three-wheelers.
Each is headed by a working group, comprising various stakeholders. These verticals would work towards developing indigenous hybrid technologies.
The NHP comes even as a detailed proposal seeking government subsidy for indigenous development of hybrids has been pending for months.
At present, only buyers of battery-powered vehicles (such as Reva) are provided with a 33% subsidy (33% of the vehicle cost is borne by the government), but no monetary incentive is available for the development and sale of hybrids in the country.
The creation of NHP comes even as a separate, elaborate hydrogen road map has already been spelt out by the government where almost all stakeholders for NHP have once again come together to develop an ideal mixture of hydrogen and CNG.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}