To prepare the country for entering the electric vehicle era, the Parliamentary Committee of the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resource has advised taking necessary initiatives in ensuring that such vehicles are not charged using illegal means.
At a recent meeting of the standing committee, it recommended the ministry take necessary initiatives in that regard.
According to a working paper of the committee meeting, the power department of the government also needs to ensure there are policies that help set up charging stations across the country.
This is because charging stations are one of the biggest challenges in the case of electric vehicles and once a policy is formulated, infrastructure development can be carried out by setting up charging stations across the country, the committee advised.
"We will also have to make sure that the electric vehicles are using electricity legally,” an official of the power department said.
For this, a policy is being formulated and once it is enacted, licenses will be issued for commercial charging stations, according to ministry sources.
If there are adequate charging stations then such vehicles will also increase rapidly and necessary industries will also be developed, sources said.
According to the State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid, electric vehicles have to be used to keep pace with the world, and in that regard, a comparative report will have to be made on the cost of the vehicles running on diesel, CNG and electricity.
If half of the public transport and private cars are changed to electric cars, it will be necessary to see how much gas or diesel will be saved, he said.
“We will also have to make a chart to see how much of carbon emissions can be curbed which will also help us to understand the benefits of using electric vehicles,” he further said.
According to importers, taxes are a major obstacle to bringing cars into the country as the government has increased taxes on cars, which are then being used on fuel imports.
However, there are some tax exemptions on imports of hybrid and non-hybrid vehicles, which has reduced the price of hybrid cars, making the low-fuel-consuming cars more popular.
Importers think that if the same kind of popularity is seen for electric vehicles, they will be readily available.
The United States is currently dominating the electrical vehicle market as the country's renowned automaker, Tesla has attracted the attention of the world just by manufacturing electric cars.
Currently, Japan's Toyota has also ventured into producing electric cars with China and Taiwan also set to join the list.
