India’s Power Minister Piyush Goyal recently announced plans for an interesting program that could see the nation’s whole car fleet becoming 100% electric by 2030. It represents one of the most ambitious goal for the electrification of transport in a large country.

The program would let people buy electric vehicles with zero down payment financed by the state and drivers can then pay for the vehicle at the rate they are saving on gas.

Piyush Goyal recently said at an event via India Times

“India can become the first country of its size which will run 100 per cent of electric vehicles. We are trying to make this programme self financing. We don’t need one rupee support from the government. We don’t need one rupee investment from the people of India.”

The minister added:

“We are working (on the scheme). Can we actually give electric car for free (zero down payment) and people can pay for that out of the savings on the petroleum products. Innovation is possible, it just needs an open mind. You need to think of scale and be honest.

The government established a working group with Road Minister Nitin Gadkari, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar. They will meet next week to evaluate ways to implement the program.

India is the third largest automotive market in Asia and a lot like China, which is the largest, they are starting to experience the consequences of the pollution brought by their fast growing industrial economy. But unlike China, India has yet to implement policies to encourage the sale of electric vehicles to try to reduce pollution from transport. The scheme could help Indians get access to increasingly popular small electric vehicles in the country, like the Mahindra e2o – see picture above.

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