From land sops to tax breaks, states woo EV makers as Centre eases off

Mint

16 hours ago

New Delhi: India's states are racing to seize the electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing wheel, offering lucrative clean-energy policies as the Centre eases off the accelerator.
From Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu to Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, top manufacturing states have put in place new EV policies over the past two years, dangling land discounts, tax breaks, and capital subsidies to woo EV makers and component suppliers. Joining them soon are Gujarat and Haryana, which are scheduled to release their new clean energy policies within the next one year.
The development comes at a time when multiple key central government schemes to boost manufacturing in the EV sector have not had much effect due to delays in disbursals and tough localisation norms.
While production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes for EVs, their components, and batteries have seen low disbursal due to stringent application process, the EV manufacturing scheme attracting foreign automakers to make in India saw more than a year delay in issuing guidelines for applying under the scheme.
Meanwhile, states are rushing in to fill the gap with attractive sops, a fact noticed and leveraged by EV companies as they seek to build a robust manufacturing presence at relatively low cost.
Thumbs-up from EV companies
During Ather Energy's earnings call on 4 August, CFO Sohil Parekh highlighted the subsidies the company is receiving from the Maharashtra government for its upcoming plant.
'We have a significant capital subsidy chunk which will be received against the total capex investment. And from an opex point of view, we have a 2.5% GST uptake that we will receive from the state share, which is all the vehicles that are being sold out of the state," Parekh told analysts and investors.
The executive added that the capital subsidy is over a period of seven years and the GST subsidy is over a period of 15 years. Moreover, all of these were over and above the standard sops, where there is a discounting and exemption on electric duty, stamp duty, and land price, etc.
Similarly, Everta, an EV charging equipment manufacturer, is also investing ₹150 crore in a plant near Bengaluru. Among the factors deciding the location of the plant, the management specifically highlighted the role of state's policies.
'We are setting up a plant in Karnataka due to the favourable clean mobility policies of the state government," Manasvi Sharma, CEO of Everta, said during the launch of the brand.
Vietnamese electric vehicle company Vinfast also signed an MoU with the Tamil Nadu government last year to invest ₹16,000 crore and set up a manufacturing unit there. This month, the company began rolling out cars from its plant, which will assemble its premium electric SUVs.
The management of the Vietnamese company highlighted that the company's decision to open a unit in the state was driven by government support, among other factors.
In its new EV Policy 2025-2030, Karnataka, a state with more than 5,400 public EV charging stations and over 250,000 EVs, has offered capital subsidies on the manufacturing units set up in the state.
This includes incentives worth 20-25% of the upfront cost of fixed assets for EV makers, manufacturers of EV components, charging infrastructure and battery swapping infrastructure manufacturers, as well as makers of EV battery packs and cells.
Upfront incentives for manufacturing are also a part of Maharashtra's offering to these companies. Its new EV policy, also set to run from 2025-2030, offered 20% fiscal incentives for manufacturers in the EV sector, since the government identified it as a 'thrust sector".
Under Tamil Nadu's 2023 policy, EV manufacturers could choose between a 100% waiver on state goods and services tax (SGST) for every vehicle sold in a 15-year window, a turnover-linked subsidy, or a 10% capital subsidy on new manufacturing units worth over ₹50 crore. The policy also allowed investors a 20% capital subsidy on new EV battery manufacturing projects set up in the state.
Further, Tamil Nadu offered incentives on research and development in the EV ecosystem, with financial assistance for technology transfer agreements and new infrastructure as part of its EV Special Manufacturing Package.
Why states are better armed
According to Abhishek Saxena, a former public policy expert with Niti Aayog, states have better ability to solve the bread and butter issues faced by EV manufacturers.
'EV manufacturers need quick access to land and better tech infrastructure," Saxena said, adding that states are in a better position to provide these. 'On the other side, the Centre's policies don't address the ecosystem problems faced by manufacturers and rather depend on the final product."
The Centre's schemes to boost manufacturing include two PLIs for automobiles, auto parts, as well as EV cells – PLI-Auto and PLI-ACC – with a cumulative outlay of a little over ₹44,000 crore.
The central government planned to dole out nearly ₹26,000 crore under PLI-Auto scheme to incentivise the manufacturing of zero-emission vehicles, but received a lukewarm response from the industry in its first year– ₹332 crore in FY25.
Now, according to the Union minister of heavy industries H.D. Kumaraswamy's statement in a 6 June email interview with Mint, the scheme is set to disburse ₹2,000 crore in FY26.
Meanwhile, the PLI-ACC scheme, notified in 2020, was set to provide incentives to companies to set up battery manufacturing units with a cumulative capacity of 50 GWh. But out of the 40 GWh capacity awarded, only about 1 GWh has been utilised.
The government had to penalise the companies for delays in setting up manufacturing plants, and no disbursal has happened under the scheme as of date.
The government also notified the scheme to promote the manufacturing of electric passenger cars in India (SPMEPCI) in June, aiming to attract foreign EV makers to set up manufacturing units in the country worth about ₹4,150 crore by reducing the import duty on fully built units brought into India. But, no EV maker has announced its participation in the scheme as of date.
Randheer Singh, former director for electric mobility at Niti Aayog and chief executive officer of ForeSee Advisors, said that a key distinction between state-level policies and central government schemes for EV manufacturing lay in the approach to localisation.
'Many state policies are designed to encourage quick industry participation, often welcoming companies that establish assembly lines and source components or raw materials from outside the state or country," Singh said, adding that central initiatives on the other hand place greater emphasis on developing domestic capabilities, with a strong focus on indigenising the supply chain to enhance India's resilience and self-reliance.
'For instance, the strict localisation requirements under the PLI schemes, as well as subsidy programmes such as PM e-Drive, are intended to foster a robust local component ecosystem," Singh said.
Strict compliance with localisation norms–companies have to prove 50% localisation–is illustrated by the small number of companies with approved products under the PLI-Auto scheme. Only 17 of the 82 companies have received approvals from testing agencies till date.
Similarly, the scheme for foreign automakers also calls for 50% localisation in five years after setting up a new manufacturing plant. PLI-ACC scheme, too, calls for manufacturers to reach 60% domestic value addition within five years of operationalising a manufacturing unit.