Gadkari Wants Rs 3 a Unit for Night EV Charging — 1,000 km for Rs 600

The Proposal in One Line

Union road transport minister Nitin Gadkari wants electricity for electric vehicles sold at two prices: Rs 3 a unit at night and Rs 5 a unit during the day. Speaking at KPMG ENRich 2026 on 3 November, he said he had already put the suggestion to the Maharashtra chief minister, arguing that surplus solar power in the afternoon and idle grid capacity at night should be priced to pull EV owners toward off-peak charging.

The arithmetic he used is simple and, for once in Indian EV policy, easy to check. An electric car that travels 5 km on one unit of electricity needs 200 units to cover 1,000 km. At Rs 3 a unit that is Rs 600. A petrol car doing 15 kmpl needs about 66.7 litres for the same distance, which at Mumbai's Rs 111.21 a litre works out to roughly Rs 7,414. A diesel at 18 kmpl and Rs 97.83 a litre lands near Rs 6,522.

Cost of driving 1,000 km	Fuel or energy needed	Cost at 4 November 2026 Mumbai prices
Electric car at Rs 3 a unit (proposed night rate)	200 kWh	Rs 600
Electric car at Rs 5 a unit (proposed day rate)	200 kWh	Rs 1,000
Petrol car at 15 kmpl	66.7 litres at Rs 111.21	Rs 7,414
Diesel car at 18 kmpl	55.6 litres at Rs 97.83	Rs 6,522

Why Tariffs Beat Subsidies

India's EV incentives have largely worked through purchase price: the PM E-DRIVE scheme, state subsidies and a lower GST slab. Those tools move a buyer once. Electricity tariffs move a buyer every month, and decide whether a family with a home charger saves Rs 80,000 a year or Rs 20,000.

He also said lithium-ion battery prices have fallen from around USD 150 per kilowatt-hour to about USD 50, the single biggest reason EVs are nearing price parity, and that three hydrogen-powered Tata trucks are under development, with ten hydrogen routes and refuelling stations planned with Ashok Leyland, Volvo, Tata, HPCL and Reliance within four months.

The 35-40 Percent Claim

Gadkari's bolder line was that 35 to 40 percent of cars sold in India will be fully electric by 2027. That is far ahead of current data. Electric cars accounted for about 7.2 percent of the passenger vehicle registrations tracked by Vahan in October 2026, and Jato Dynamics puts the October EV penetration at 7.3 percent, up from 3.6 percent a year earlier. The growth rate is real and steep, but a jump from 7 percent to 35 percent inside a single year would require a supply and charging build-out that no manufacturer has announced.

He linked the electric push to ethanol too, saying about four crore four-wheelers and 20 crore two-wheelers already run on E20 fuel, and that a Toyota Innova capable of running on 100 percent bioethanol would launch this month. The ministry has separately amended the Central Motor Vehicles Rules to allow E100-capable vehicles, so the regulatory ground is being prepared alongside the rhetoric.

What This Means for You

Nothing changes at your electricity meter today. Charging tariffs are set by state electricity regulators, and a ministerial suggestion becomes a tariff only after a formal process. But if Maharashtra moves, other states tend to follow, and night-time charging at Rs 3 to Rs 5 a unit would be the cheapest running cost any Indian car owner has ever had. Until then, the honest calculation for a buyer is the one on our EV cost calculator: work out your home tariff, not the headline, and compare it against the latest pump prices on the AUTOINDIA fuel price page before you sign.

(Sources: Nitin Gadkari remarks at KPMG ENRich 2026 reported by economictimes.indiatimes.com and auto.hindustantimes.com, 3 November 2026; Vahan registration data as reported by thehindubusinessline.com; Jato Dynamics October 2026 data as reported by HT Auto. Images: Wikimedia Commons, CC0 and GODL-India.)

::KEY_NUMBERS:: Proposed night tariff | Rs 3 per unit Proposed day tariff | Rs 5 per unit Cost of 1,000 km in an EV at Rs 3 | Rs 600 Same 1,000 km in a petrol car | Rs 7,414 ::TLDR:: Gadkari has proposed time-of-day EV charging tariffs of Rs 3 a unit at night and Rs 5 during the day to the Maharashtra chief minister At 5 km per unit, 1,000 km costs Rs 600 in an EV against Rs 7,414 in a petrol car and Rs 6,522 in a diesel He also repeated that 35-40 percent of cars sold in India would be electric by 2027 Lithium-ion cell prices have fallen from about USD 150 to USD 50 per kWh, he said ::PULLQUOTE:: The cheapest electric car in India is still an expensive one to charge at a public fast charger. Tariff design, not battery chemistry, is the next lever. ::SOURCES:: Ministry of Road Transport and Highways remarks at KPMG ENRich 2026, The Economic Times, HT Auto