‘Electric Vehicles to cost same as petrol vehicles in 2 years’: Nitin Gadkari

Prices of all Electric Vehicles (EVs) will be the same cost as of petrol vehicles in the country within two years, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday. “I will assure all the honourable members that within two years the cost of electric two-wheelers, electric three-wheelers and electric four-wheelers will be equivalent to the cost of petrol vehicles and the country will change,” he said. 

Requesting Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla to provide space for a charging station in the Parliament premises, Gadkari said that MPs can buy EVs once a charging station is installed. “In every government premises, we expect to give the facility of electric charging in the parking system,” he added.

According to the union transport minister, the Ministry of Power has issued charging infrastructure for electric vehicles. 

Meanwhile, Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday, reached Parliament in his hydrogen-powered car Toyota Mirai making a statement that hydrogen is the future of fuel. The car is from Japan’s Toyota company and the hydrogen fuel is from the Faridabad-based Indian Oil Pump.

“To become ‘Atmanirbhar’, we’ve introduced green hydrogen which is generated from water. This car is a pilot project. Now, the manufacturing of green hydrogen will begin in the country. Imports will be curbed and new employment opportunities will be created,” the minister said. 

In January, Gadkari had said that he would be seen in the hydrogen-fuelled car on Delhi roads soon to encourage people to use the “fuel of the future”.

Also read: Projects worth 5 lakh crore executed in Maharashtra: Nitin Gadkari

In the Parliament on Wednesday, Gadkari spoke about alternative fuel and said that “alternative fuel will also bring the pollution levels of the national capital down.” We are developing this chemistry of zinc-ion, aluminum-ion, sodium-ion batteries. If on petrol, you are spending ₹100, then on the electric vehicle you will spend ₹10 (for using),” Nitin Gadkari added.