A national committee on electronic vehicle policy, also known as the EV board, on Thursday agreed in principle on a proposal to lower the excise tax on EV batteries from the current 8% to just 1% while offering a 24-billion-baht subsidy to the EV battery-producing industry.
"The subsidy will be on a first-come, first-served basis," said Energy Minister Supattanapong Punmeechaow.
The subsidy should help bring down the prices of EV batteries and EVs overall, which will, in time, boost the country's EV-making industry, he added.
The amount of the subsidy on offer will depend on the size of the battery produced, Mr Supattanapong said.
A producer of an EV battery with less than 8-gigawatt hours (GWh) capacity will receive a subsidy of between 400 baht and 600 baht per kilowatt hour (kWh), while a factory making an EV battery of more than 8 GWh will receive between 600 baht and 800 baht per kWh, Mr Supattanapong added.
