Google
 

Friday, June 20, 2008

Why the Government should not subsidise imported Hybrids like the Honda civic and the Toyota Prius

Soon your dream of owning a hybrid car could turn out to be a reality and no this time its not only the rich who can dream of having the fancy hybrid badge on their cars.

Tata Motors is developing a hybrid model of its passenger car for only an additional Rs,45000 over its petrol only counterpart.Tata are planning hybrid version of the indigo and the indica apart from the ACE pick-up.Similarly Mahindra is all set to launch a Scorpio hybrid for an additional premium of Rs.80,000.Mahindra's hybrid is a diesel electric one.

Tata's vehicles are expected by 2010 while Mahindra's should be on the roads a bit sooner than that.

Newspapers like the Times of India on their front page are requesting the Government to subsidise hybrids even if they are not manufactured in India,the media says they should be given tax incentives and people should be encouraged to buy imported hybrids.Why should we import when this technology can be developed in our country itself.These imports would kill the domestics.If Honda and Toyota are indeed serious about protecting the environment why don't they manufacture hybrids in India itself.

[Source:Economictimes]

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Very true. I couldn't agree more with what you have written. As a consumer and fan of latest tech, I always feel that the duty is ridicules. But when I try to see the bigger picture, I am proud about the growth of the models offered by Indian manufacturers and more about their future plans and line-ups. Reducing the duty will harm the growth inside India. There is no doubt that there will be a huge demand of hybrids in India and the like of Toyota and Honda will be selling up to their full capacities, then why don’t they plan to make them in India.