EV prices to come down by 10-15% with Budget measures: NHEV

Electric vehicle prices are likely to come down by 10-15% because of the impact of the provisions announced in Budget 2025-26 for the sector, according to the National Highways for Electric Vehicles (NHEV)—a government initiative to convert highways into e-highways.

The Budget announced a number of import duty cuts for both EVs and the electronics sector, which are expected to boost the concerned industry. “India’s recent reduction in customs duty on electric vehicles and battery components is expected to lower EV prices by approximately 10-15%,” says Abhijeet Sinha, programme director, NHEV.

Sinha, however, is of the view that the prices of EVs need to be brought down significantly. He says that the government should aim to reduce prices of EVs by 50% “to equate them with diesel and petrol vehicles in the next two years. It should encourage swapping for which guidelines have been issued in January this year,” he says.

NHEV is a pilot programme by the central government to upgrade highways into e-highways. An e-highway is a road that provides electricity to moving vehicles. It conducted technical trials on three pilot corridors: Delhi-Agra (Yamuna Expressway) in 2020; Delhi–Jaipur in 2022; and Chennai–Trichy in 2024. The Ministry of Power has proposed to convert a total of 12 national highways into e-highways.

“To the list of exempted capital goods, I propose to add 35 additional capital goods for EV battery manufacturing, and 28 additional capital goods for mobile phone battery manufacturing. This will boost domestic manufacture of lithium-ion batteries, both for mobile phones and electric vehicles,” finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced in the Budget.