EVs can maintain cost without subsidies but won't oppose incentive: Gadkari

With falling lithium-ion battery prices, electric vehicles can now maintain cost without subsidies but it is for the finance and heavy industries ministries to decide if incentives need to be given to electric vehicles, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Monday.

Speaking at the annual session of Automotive Components Manufacturers Association (ACMA), Gadkari, the Minister for Road Transport and Highways, said within two years, the cost of EVs will be the same with their petrol and diesel counterparts.

"First of all, I am not against any subsidies. I don't have any problem," Gadkari said when asked if more incentives were needed to accelerate electric mobility as adoption in India has not been as expected.

Elaborating his views, he said at one point the price of the lithium ion battery was USD 150 per kilowatt hour. Now it is something USD 108 to 110 per kilowatt hour.

"I am confident it will come to USD 100," he asserted.

Moreover, he said the manufacturing of EVs has witnessed