Mumbai: Electric vehicle manufacturers’ body SMEV on Wednesday said the continuation of the existing import sops for machinery used to produce lithium-ion batteries will help support current battery pricing. The credit relief measures given to MSMEs in the Union budget are a welcome move, SMEV said and added that since many EV manufacturers also fall in this category, it hopes that these credit relief measures would be extended to them also, as they too had faced tremendous hardships during the pandemic.
“There are still a lot of EV component parts that need to be imported, including lithium batteries, permanent magnets for electric motors, semiconductors, etc. We anticipated that the customs duty on these necessary imports would be rationalised in order to help keep EV prices in check,” Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV) Director General said in a statement.
The hike in customs duty on SKD/CBU is opportune as it will further incentivize the local suppliers because of the relative pricing advantage.
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Under the Rs 10,000-crore Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (hybrid and) Electric Vehicles in India (FAME India) scheme, EV makers can offer a discount of up to 40 per cent on the cost of locally manufactured vehicles and claim it as a subsidy from the government. This allows firms to make EVs affordable and boost sales.