Jairam Ramesh buys Tata Nexon EV after this exchange with Gadkari

New Delhi, Aug 07: Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Saturday revealed that he got himself a new electric vehicle, after an interesting exchange with Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari during the Budget Session, 2022.

"After this exchange with Nitin Gadkari on March 22, I got myself a Tata Nexon EV. I firmly believe India should put an end to manufacturing of all types of petrol and diesel vehicles by 2035 at the very least, and massively bring down the cost of EVs," the Congress leader tweeted today.

In the exchange, Jairam Ramesh can be heard asking Gadkari whether India has a specific roadmap to phase out all the petrol and diesel vehicles, adding that the private car manufacturers otherwise won't be getting incentives for the same.

Replying to Ramesh's question, Gadkari agreed that presently India has "lot of petrol and diesel vehicles" and that's why the government has launched a scrapping policy. He added that the amount of pollution generated by one 'old vehicle' is equivalent to the pollution generate by four new vehicles.

He requested the Congress MP to not call for any "fixed program" with 2035 or 2040 as a deadline for phasing out petrol and diesel vehicles.

Gadkari asserted that electric vehicles will be the natural choice over petrol and diesel vehicles since it is cost effective.