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National Mission on hybrid and electric vehicles

“Green cars can now run on Indian roads”. The news just came out from the announcement of Budget 2011-2012.  Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee announced in his budget speech about the cars that run on CNG, LPG and other hybrid and alternative fuels will be encouraged in the country.  It followed by the announcement of a plan to set up ‘National Mission for Hybrid and Electric Vehicles’. The objective of sustainable and environment friendly transport system will be the agenda of this mission.

Second fastest growing Indian automobile market which has reported 30% growth in last year has considerable impacts on the environment. Exhaust gases resulting from the burning of fossil fuels in vehicles increases environmental pollution and subsequently raise the GHG concentrations. Hence the transport sector cannot be neglected in government policies on environmental protection and climate change. Depleting natural resources for the petroleum products and increasing prices of the crude oil in international market are also the driving force for this provision of incorporating green and clean technologies in the transportation sector. As a result finance minister, has decided to give the Indian auto sector enough incentives to go green. On 22nd Nov 2010, MNRE have already announced a 20% incentive to Electric Vehicle manufacturers. This financial incentive is applicable on the ex- factory price for each electric vehicle sold in India.

In this budget, concessional rate of Central Excise duty would be applicable on specific parts of electrical vehicles like batteries and other components.  Most of these parts are presently imported in the country and are equally important in replacement market. It is resulted in the reduction of cost of auto parts which have to be replaced like batteries instead of reducing whole price of the new vehicles.  This budget also implies concessional rate of 5 % on excise duty on hybrid vehicles to incentivize their domestic production.

What are Hybrid Vehicles: More than one energy source to take off and the option to switch between powering sources makes hybrid vehicles a truly alternative option to the conventional ones.The term most commonly use as a Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEVs), a combination of an internal combustion engine and one or more electric motors.

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Various research and development activities have been carried out and still going on in finding efficient technology to power the vehicle without losing its capacity and speed as compare to conventional counterparts. Following energy sources have been identified to fuel the Hybrid vehicles – Rechargeable energy source, CNG, Hydrogen (Fuel cell vehicle), Solar, wind and waste heat from the internal combustion engine.

Reva Electric Car

The Reva electric car manufactured in by Mahindra Reva Electric Company, Bangalore. It is gearless, completely electric vehicle resulted in zero emission.

Click here for more info

Some examples of Hybrid vehicles

   
 Toyota Prius  Honda Civic Hybrid
 Ford Excape hybrid  Chevrolet Silverado hybrid
 Ford Escape  Chevrolet Silverado

 

 

You might be interested in-

Philippine’s first step towards Electric Vehicles

Booming Electric vehicles in China’s automotive sector

Energy Technology Perspectives 2010 – Scenarios & Strategies to 2050 [ETP 2010]

Indian Auto ancillary – Climate change risks and opportunities

Image credits: Wikipedia and Reva electric official website

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