“My dream is to make it a Rs 15 lakh crore industry. It is very important, as this industry brings maximum revenue to central and state governments in terms for GST. In place of petrol and diesel, I dream that India replaces these fuels with 100% biofuels such as Ethanol. Cost of petrol is Rs 120 per litre and Ethanol cost Rs 60 per litre. Petrol creates more pollution and costs more and ethanol is green fuel and costs less.” Gadkari said at the event.
The union minister also appreciated German production quality and encouraged young Indian engineers to learn from existing partners such as Mercedes-Benz, how to produce cutting edge technologies and manufacturing. Gadkari also invited the German automaker to invest in electric buses for India through its commercial vehicle arms such as Bharat Benz.
Gadkari stated, “Electric buses have grown by 1,600 percent in India. We currently have 1,50,000 buses in the country and my prediction is that within 5 years there is huge potential for electric buses because they are cheaper to run and the government is working towards encouraging public transport in the country.”
Union minister Nitin Gadkari addressed these points at the Mercedes-Benz Chakan plant on September 30. The event marked the roll out of the first locally assembled EQS 580 4-matic luxury EV. The EQS has an ARAI-certified range of 857 km on a full charge. It gets the latest 56-inch MBUX fully digital dashboard and has a Euro NCAP safety rating of 5-stars. Mercedes-Benz has launched the EQS luxury EV range at a starting price of Rs 1.55 crore.
