Electric Mobility News

Homegrown EV manufacturer Ather Energy has commenced its operations in Chennai, its second market after Bengaluru. The company held its first customer event last weekend in the city, and has also begun accepting pre-bookings for its electric scooters for a token amount of Rs. 5000. The Ather 450 is priced at Rs. 1.31 lakh, while the entry-level Ather 340 is priced at Rs. 1.11 lakh (all prices, on-road Chennai), and will be officially launched tomorrow. The prices are about Rs. 5000-6000 more expensive than Bangalore. It is to be noted that the on-road price is in-line with the current GST rate of 12 per cent on EVs, and is likely to see a reduction once the GST council approves the five per cent rate as recommended under the Union Budget 2019.

Ford and Volkswagen have reached an outline agreement to share electric and autonomous car technologies, extending their alliance beyond a cooperation on commerical vehicles.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the tax proposals in the Union Budget for FY20 on fossil fuels and electric cars must push people to avoid polluting fuels and adopt either electric vehicles or public transport.

E-scooters touted as zero-carbon urban transport are flooding city streets worldwide, but just how green they are remains an open question.

Come 2020 and we will see a full-fledged quadcopter racing series happening with 5 teams and 10 pilots. All participants will be flying the Airspeed Mk II quadcopter, which was also revealed at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

The Audi e-tron is the company's first ever fully electric SUV and it was recently previewed in India. Audi scored 5-stars in Euro NCAP's latest round of crash tests and scored 91 per cent for adult occupancy protection.

In May Lotus confirmed a maximum of 130 examples will be built at its factory in Hethel, Norfolk, in tribute to its Type number.

The NDA 2.0 government made some major announcements for pushing electric mobility in India as part of the Union Budget 2019. While the Indian auto sector did not witness any dramatic changes in tax norms, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recommended reducing the GST rate on electric vehicles from the current 12 per cent to five per cent in a bid to push the sale of EVs in the country. In addition, there will be an income tax deduction of Rs. 1.5 lakh on the interest paid on the loans taken to purchase electric vehicles. The push for EV purchase is expected to boost sales for the alternate fuelled vehicles, which has been a major agenda for the government since the previous term.