State Bank Of India Launches Green Car Loan: Now Get Lower Interest Rates For Electric Car Loans

The State Bank of India (SBI) has launched the 'Green Car Loan,' a loan scheme specifically designed for those looking to purchase an electric car. The new loan scheme was launched to celebrate World Earth Day on 23 April, 2019.

According to SBI, this loan is part of its commitment towards a cleaner and greener environment. With this development, SBI has become the first bank in India to offer a loan specifically for electric cars.

A couple of years ago, it would have been right of us to say that electric vehicles are the future. Now though, it isn't the future but the present. The era of electric cars vehicles is here and several manufacturers have already jumped on to the electric vehicle bandwagon.

In India, Mahindra Electric and Tata Motors have been fielding electric cars for a while now. Almost all other manufacturers are getting into the electric car space and have developed or are developing electric vehicles. In such a scenario, one would expect electric vehicles to take-off and sell well, but that unfortunately has not happened in India yet. This is due to many factors and one of those factors is the cost.

There is no doubt that electric cars are much more expensive when compared to its petrol or diesel powered sibling. Adding to this are the high interest rates if one opts for a loan. This is exactly where SBI hopes to come into the picture and change things for the EV market in India.

The aim according to SBI is to encourage people to buy electric vehicles and this Green Car loan does just that by offering this loan at 20bps lesser than the current car loans. This reduces the interest quite significantly.

The Green car Loan is also offered with zero processing fee, but this benefit will only be available to customers who opt for the loan before November 2019. The Green Car Loan also has one of the longest repayment durations - 8 years.

P K Gupta, MD (R & DB) SBI was quoted as saying, "We are pleased to introduce the concept of 'Green Car Loan'. These days, cars are perceived to play a vital role in polluting environment. We believe SBI Green Car Loan (Electric Vehicle) scheme would act as a change agent in auto loan segment and encourage customers to switch to electric vehicles which can improve overall air quality and lower carbon emissions".

Thoughts On State Bank Of India's Green Car Loan

The government of India had taken a pledge of ensuring 30% electric vehicles on the road by 2030, and in order to support that, SBI has already announced 100% migration towards electric vehicles by 2030 to reduce carbon footprints.

The bank also became the first major Indian organization along with Wipro to join the Climate Group's EV100 initiative for accelerating the roll-out of electric vehicles worldwide. With such initiatives in its bag, it is little surprise that SBI became the first Indian bank to offer a specific auto loan for electric vehicles.