The Indian government has planned to finalize the incentives under its new battery swap scheme for electric vehicles (EVs) within the next two months.
The policy will initially focus on battery swap services for electric scooters, motorcycles, and three-wheeled auto-rickshaws in boost sectors like last-mile delivery and ride-sharing.
The government will introduce a new policy to promote swapping, a service that allows EV drivers to replace depleted battery blocks for freshly charged ones at swap stations. This is faster than charging the vehicle and reduces range anxiety for drivers.
The government is likely to offer EV owners an incentive of up to 20% of the total subscription or lease cost of the battery and this will be in addition to what they already get for buying clean vehicles, the person said.
In 2019, India set aside 100 billion rupees ($1.3 billion) to promote EVs by giving incentives directly to buyers, but only about 10% of this has been used.
Incentives for battery swapping will likely be given from the same fund, the official said.
In a major step to promote EV adoption in the country, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget Speech in the Lok Sabha announced that the government will bring a battery-swapping policy to boost the use of EVs in the country and interoperability standards will be formulated.
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