Mumbai : Luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz has urged the Indian government “not to rush with the all-electric vehicles push” and thus “foreclose better technological options” for future generations, as the rest of the world is racing to run on hydrogen and not electricity. The car manufacturer also called for adopting a less ambitious plan of promoting e-cars, arguing that a nationwide electrification of the auto industry is just not commercially and technologically viable.
Speaking to the PTI, Mercedes-Benz India’s MD and chief executive, Roland Folger, said that “By 2040, the whole world will be driving home hydrogen cars. To me the whole plan to go electric nationwide looks like a rushed with idea.” More importantly with such a rush we are foreclosing options for better technologies for the future generations, he added. The auto industry in the country was taken by surprise after the Narendra Modi government announced that the entire auto industry wil go electric by the turn of 2030. The announcement came on the heels of the government skipping a stage in pollution standards, and advancing the introduction of BS–VI fuel by two years. There has been widespread criticism from many quarters that the nationwide e-cars plan is neither economically nor technologically feasible and that it is based more on impulse than sound planning, strategy or technology. Calling for better and coordinated efforts, Folger said,
“Ideally, regulators and policymakers should be totally aligned with what’s happening on the technology front because 5-10 years is a short period in the auto landscape. The least policymakers can do is to take the auto industry into confidence.” Pointing out that the time frame announced to go all electric is very short, given the very long-term nature of the auto industry, he said this would mean that all auto companies stop investing in or developing any more products. “If so what will happen to the investments already made in other technologies? Our planners should know that over the next two decades or so the whole world will be driving hydrogen cars and not electric cars,” Folger said.
On the financial burden the government plan will impose on the nation, he added, “Can the government invest hundreds of billions of dollars into setting up charging stations and associated infrastructure? If not, then who will foot the bill? Definitely not the private sector…”
