India plans to achieve electric mobility by 2030 and welcomes Chinese industries participation and investment in the expansion of Indian Electric Vehicles (EV) market, NITI Aayog Principal Advisor Anil Srivastava said.
Srivastava, who led an industry delegation from India and addressed a summit forum on 'Global Zero Emission and All Electric Vehicles' held from January 11-13, met Chen Qingtai, President of China EV100, and invited China's participation in India's ambitious plans to go for full electric mobility.
"He mentioned that for India's ambitious objective of achieving electric mobility by 2030, we see a very substantive role for the Chinese EV players," a press release from the Indian Embassy here said on Sunday.
China EV100, a private electric vehicle association of over 200 leading Chinese electric mobility industries, is organising the 5th China EV100 Forum in Beijing. The government as well as industry representatives from all over the world attended the event.
China is both the biggest manufacturer and the biggest market for cars globally. But the car sales fell in 2018 by about six percent to 22.7 million units for the first time in 20 years, sending shock waves across the industry.
The drop is largely attributed to the continued slowdown of the Chinese economy, stringent measures to restrict new car sales to cut automobile pollution and the ongoing trade war with the US.
China's NEV market made a major gain this month with Elon Musk, the CEO of US electric carmaker Tesla, on Monday laying foundation to set up a $7 billion plant in Shanghai. Tesla became the first to benefit from a new policy allowing foreign carmakers to set up wholly-owned subsidiaries in China.
In his meeting with Chen, Srivastava said that given the market size of India and China together, there is huge cooperation potential for EV industries of both countries.
He said EV industries of both countries should have more interaction and proposed to establish a formal interaction mechanism between an Indian EV Industry association, supported by NITI Aayog, and China EV100, which can meet periodically.
Earlier, Srivastava spoke about the Indian government's policy for promotion of electric mobility, current state of play and future road map.
Addressing the forum, he said EV sales were expected to be 30 percent of total sales in 2030 with 25.36 million EVs and 59.17 million (Internal Combustion Engines) ICEs.
The total automobile sales in India were expected to touch 84.53 million in 2030.
He mentioned that India is committed to global environmental commitments, and will encourage development and adoption of clean energy and new energy transportation.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)