Nitin Gadkari urges EV manufacturers not to depend on China

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways and MSME, Nitin Gadkari in June said the government is formulating a new policy on import parking charging solution that is made available to other customers. This enables users to charge their Ather 450 anywhere from a regular 5A socket. Further, it also provides free access to Ather Grid, the fast charging public network, for one substitution and India should no longer depend on China.

The announcement by the minister came the wake of escalating tensions at the Ladakh border between India and China.

The union minister was speaking at a webinar on India's electric roadmap post COVID-19. Mr Gadkari urged that though Indian EV companies earn significant profit by importing parts from China, in the long term the country should produce everything locally.

He also stressed that there was a need to focus on research and innovation to ramp up domestic manufacturing in India. He, however cautioned Indian companies saying Chinese companies may give a reasonable concession in the beginning but later as industry production increases, they will hike the charges.