Electric

On July 17, Ministry of Road Transport asked states government to create preferential policies for adoption of EVs through other incentives such as land allotment for charging infrastructure, mandating charging infrastructure in malls, housing societies and office complexes in addition to public parking places.
lt is important to increase the share of zero emission electric vehicle in shared mobility as well as public transport since, the public transport and shared mobility vehicles cover higher distances, their conversion into electric would bring considerable impact on the harmful emissions in the cities.
States are requested to operationalize the Ministry's notification by registering electric vehicles for passenger mobility without imposing any permit requirement.
State, which have€ not reduced or waived the road tax on EVs, may please consider waiving the road tax to the maximum possible extent on the electric vehicles so as to reduce the initial cost of the vehicle to the users.

MoRTH notification

On July 18, Ford Motor (China) Ltd. (Ford China) announced that the all-electric compact SUV “Territory EV” designed exclusively for the China market was officially launched to receive preorders. The new SUV has two models, with preorder prices ranging from CNY 182,800 to CNY 206,800 after subsidies. 
The new SUV is 1,936mm wide and has a wheelbase of 2,716mm.
Featuring a high efficiency BMS (battery management system) and a liquid-cooled climate system for all models, the new vehicle has an NEDC cruising range of 360km. It takes 33 minutes to charge the battery from 30% to 80%. A 10-minute charging may support a cruising range of 60km.
The new vehicle has a 10.25-inch full LCD instrument cluster, an EPS (electronic power steering) system and eight smart driving assistant systems including those for forward vehicle collision warning, lane departure warning and traffic sign recognition. The vehicle is also equipped with an iflyAUTO infotainment interaction system and a 10.1-inch full-touch HD screen.
In addition, the owners may locate the vehicle, remotely lock/unlock car doors, control the air-conditioner, search for charging stations, set the charging time online and check charging status via the FordPass app. It is reported that Ford plans to include the information of over 150,000 public charging stations in more than 300 cities of China in the FordPass app.
The Territory EV is the first all-electric model released by Ford in China and the first new energy vehicle launched by Ford according to its “Ford China 2.0” China business plan.

From a Ford China press release

On July 18, it was reported that State Grid Corporation of China (State Grid) and Evergrande Group (Evergrande) officially established a joint venture named State Grid Evergrande Smart Energy Service Co., Ltd. The two companies will each hold 50% of the joint venture shares. The new company will focus on the construction and operation of smart charging stations in communities and sales of smart charging stations.
Based on the smart charging cloud platform developed by Evergrande, the joint venture will intelligently control and dispatch electric power via State Grid’s energy control system and thus realize the reduction of charging costs for vehicle owners by reserving surplus electricity in peak hours for use in other periods of time and arranging charging in an orderly manner. The domestic electricity consumption will not be affected as there will be no need to rebuild communities’ power distribution networks.
In addition, the owners of new energy vehicles compatible with V2G (Vehicle-to-Grid) technology may make a profit and further reduce charging costs by selling surplus electric power to State Grid based on State Grid’s Smart Grid - Electric Internet of Things (SG-EIoT) and Evergrande’s smart charging cloud platform. All Evergrande new energy vehicles will support V2G technology in the future.
From Evergrande Group press release