press trust of india
New Delhi, Dec 24: Luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz has urged the 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.
Mercedes-Benz India managing director and chief executive Roland Folger said, ” 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, he added, with such a rush we are foreclosing options for better technologies for the future generations.
The auto industry in the country was taken by surprise after the Narendra Modi government announced last year that the entire auto industry would go electric by the turn of 2030.
But the plan has been criticised as neither economically nor technologically feasible and 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.”
