MUMBAI, July 12 (Xinhua) -- India's electric revolution in automobiles is picking up momentum as engineering company Greaves Cotton has crossed a milestone of selling 1,000 electric three wheelers in the passenger auto segment in few months of its launch, a release of the company has said.
The market observations have shown that switching to e-rickshaws has reduced the physical fatigue these manual/cycle rickshaw pullers faced earlier and has improved their quality of life and earnings, the release said late Thursday, adding the drivers would earn 2.9-4.4 U.S. dollars more every day.
"We have received a favorable response from the users of e-rickshaw, a smartly engineered and rugged e-rickshaw, now accessible from select Greaves Retail outlets across the country," said K Vijayakumar, Greaves Cotton Limited's president, special projects.
In the past few years, several companies have announced their intention to foray into the country's three-wheeler passenger vehicle segment, which is a quick and attractive mode of transport for last mile connectivity in India.
The country's domestic auto manufacturers produce around 1 million three-wheelers for passengers annually and a part of those are also exported worldwide.
Earlier this week, Hyundai Motors in India has launched India's first electric sport utility vehicle (SUV), Kona, at an ex-showroom price of about 36,871 U.S. dollars.
Last week in the annual budget, Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced income tax rebates of up to 2,186 U.S. dollars to customers on interest paid on loans to buy electric vehicles, with a total exemption benefit of 3,643 U.S. dollars over the entire loan period.
The minister also announced customs duty exemption on lithium-ion cells, which will help lower the cost of lithium-ion batteries in India as they are not produced locally.
