The government will soon notify rules permitting minors, aged 16 – 18 year old, to drive electric scooters with 4 kilowatt battery power.“Government is planning to allow minors to drive electric scooters with 4 kW battery power… This will push market for electric vehicles,” said a government source.
The announcement is expected to be out within a week, the source added.According to Section 10 of Motors Vehicles Act, 1989, a minor is allowed to obtain driving licence to drive “motorcycle without gear” having engine power up to 50 cc.“We will now give equivalence to these engines with 4kW batteries,” the source added.
It must be noted that minors will only be allowed to drive electric scooters and not vehicles with internal combustion engines.These vehicles have a range of about 60 to 100 kilometer per charge and cost close to Rs one lakh.
The government has been trying hard to push its mission to give nudge to electric mobility in India. The government envisions to convert 30 to 40 percent of total vehicular count into electric by 2030. Presently, electric scooters are only 0.2 percent of all electric vehicles in India.According to sources in the know, after the government couldn’t finalise Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid and) Electric (FAME) policy to provide subsidy on manufacturing of electric vehicles, Centre has shifted its focus back to 2/3 wheelers.
“The focus was on buses and public transport, but the reports (released by NITI Aayog at various time intervals) reveal that their focus has shifted from buses to three wheeler as that’s where the penetration will happen,” they added.Two wheelers have high penetration in the Indian automobile market and account for 76 percent of total market. The government plans to start with this segment with then move to four wheelers, according to sources.Currently, there are close to 2,10,000 electric two-wheelers. Out of these, more than 98 percent are low powered and low speed variants (maximum power not exceeding 250 Watts and maximum speed not exceeding 25 kilometers per hour).
First Published on Dec 12, 2018 01:50 pm moneycontrol Nikita Vashisht @nikita_vashisht
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