total electric vehicle sales in india in fy18 amounted to 56000 units up from 25000 in fy17 new delhi the government is planning to incentivise the purchase of electric vehicles evs with rebates of up to rs 50000 bringing them under the umbrella of priority sector lending and lowering interest rates on loans said an official with knowledge of the matter the move is part of the governments bid to promote the manufacture and sale of evs in india so that they eventually comprise 15 of total sales from the current negligible share in the next five yearsa cabinet note is being prepared and a decision is expected soon the senior government official told et on condition of anonymity the idea is to give enough incentives so that the prices of electric vehicles match the current conventional internal combustion engines so that prospective buyers start giving preferences to electric vehicles over conventional vehicles the person said advt the plan could be rolled out in select cities for a fixed tenure in the first phase said the person cited above the sops may be linked to battery size and vehicle type india is banking on cleaner energy sources to help clean up its polluted citiesextensive infrastructure development will be needed to provide adequate charging facilities to ensure this isnt a constraint for adoption the official said stakeholder ministries have already issued notifications to facilitate the domestic manufacture of evs and creation of infrastructure following intervention by the prime ministers office pmothis could be clubbed with waiving of road and registration taxes by states and partial or complete exemption from parking charges for electric vehicles resulting in substantial savings for ev buyers the official saidthe single biggest factor for slow penetration of electric vehicles is their high price which is around 2 to 25 times more than a comparable conventional vehicle according to the society of indian automobile manufacturers siam another concern is the range per charge thats despite electric vehicles having a significant advantage in terms of operating cost which could be as low as onefourth that of a conventional vehicle advt total electric vehicle sales in india in fy18 amounted to 56000 units up from 25000 in fy17 of this electric twowheelers dominated with 54800 units up from 23000 in the previous fiscal however electric fourwheelers witnessed a drop in fy18 to 1200 units from 2000 siam data show total passenger vehicles sold in india in fy18 stood at 33 million units while total twowheeler sales amounted to 202 million unitsthe department of revenue had on january 29 calibrated basic customs duty and goods and services tax gst rates on electric vehicles to make them competitive and lowered duties on raw materials imported for manufacturing components besides the ministry of power has issued guidelines for facilitating the establishment of charging stations and subsidised rates of electricity across cities and highways the ministry of housing and urban affairs has notified amendments to the building code and town planning rules to allow