The plans to improve electrical vehicles could fail if meaningful steps are not taken by the governmen, the Electric Vehicle Club of Sri Lanka said in a statement.
Co-founder and Interim Committee Member of Mahisanka Abeywickrama Electric Vehicle Club Sri Lanka however thanked Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera for taking measurements to improve the electric vehicle usage in Sri Lanka in 2018.
“Also the plan of removing all fuel vehicles from 2025, imposing the carbon tax, proposal to install electric vehicle chargers, the reduction of taxation for buses and trains are highly appreciated. However there are a few issues that needs to be addressed.
The first issue is imposing higher tax percentage for electric vehicles over100Kw. It is clear that electric vehicles that will come in 2018 will be of a motor capacity between 100kw-150kw. Therefore it would not be practical to import these vehicles during next year. The attached tables shows how the taxes of electric vehicles are greater than hybrid vehicles if compared within same class”
The second issue is that the decision not to give tax relives for used vehicles (later it was brought down to one year used vehicles), is not practical.
The main reason is that in Sri Lanka, brand new electric vehicles are still not imported. Second reason is that the efficiency of the car will remain thought out years when compared with hybrids and petrol cars.
“When it comes to an electric vehicles, the main component which will depreciate when running is the electric battery. When a new batter is replaced with the old battery, the old battery could be used for home solar systems for another 5 years. After that period there is a process of re-exporting and recycling and even batteries of hybrids cars follow the same process. “It is true that without a proper recycle or disposing process, if used electric batteries are thrown to the environment, there will be pollution.
There are many steps the government can take to properly collect and re-export the used batteries without restricting the importation of electric vehicles.
The Club said even though brand new electric vehicles are not sold in Sri Lanka at this point, it would start during next year. And there is a possibility of their prices being very high. Furthermore, European countries give special grants and other relies when purchasing an electric vehicle. As a result their prices go down drastically and by importing those used vehicles our country also will benefit from those grants in indirect way. The Association proposes that by considering above facts, they would appreciate if the government could allow bring down at least 2 years older electric vehicles.
Promoting use of electrical vehicles in proper manner will give huge benefits to Sri Lanka’s energy security, environment, and people and generally to the whole community. If the government really cares about all these the club said they believe that above mentioned facts will be taken into consideration.
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