There is no move in the government to ban production or sale of vehicles running on petrol and diesel but electric vehicles were certainly a priority to meet future fuel demand for mobility, oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Tuesday.

“Is there any government document that mentions that petrol and diesel vehicles will be banned from a particular date? India cannot afford to do that. We need a wider energy basket. We need our coal, our renewables and hydrocarbons. But the priority is to move towards a cleaner basket. That is why EVs are a priority. So are city gas (CNG and PNG services), Euro-VI petrol and diesel as well as biofuels,” he said on the sidelines of a function where winners of 32 recently auctioned exploration blocks signed contracts with the government.

Pradhan said no one in the government was saying petrol and diesel vehicles would vanish from the roads. “Trucks and other vehicles will continue to ply. Our fuel demand is rising and it will grow further as we have a roadmap to become a $5 trillion economy. Projections are that India will be one of the largest fuel consumers in the world in a few years. EVs will play an important role in meeting the incremental energy demand for mobility. That is why incentives have been announced for EVs in the budget,” he said.