Delhi To Become Electric Vehicle Capital Of India

The Delhi government has drafted a new Electric Vehicle Policy 2019 to improve the capital’s air quality by introducing more electric vehicles. The target set is 5 lakh (25%) battery EVs by 2024.

Under the new policy, which will be valid for 3 years, EVs will be exempted from road tax and registration charges.

Currently, electric two-wheelers constitute only 0.2% of annual two-wheeler sales, electric cars contribute 0.1% to car sales, while electric three-wheeler sale is almost zero.

The government aims to introduce 35,000 EVs within a year. There will also be 1,000 EVs for last-mile deliveries and 250 public charging or swapping stations around Delhi.

In the next 5 years, the state government is hoping to save around ₹6000 crore in oil and liquid natural gas imports, as well as reduce CO2 emissions by 4.8 million tonnes and 2.5 ppm tailpipe emissions by 159 tonnes.

Two-wheeled EVs will get a purchase incentive of ₹5000 per kWh of battery capacity under the new EV policy, which aims to make Delhi the EV capital of India.

A scrapping incentive of ₹5000 will also be there.

This would help delivery services switch to electric two-wheelers, and a target has been set at 50% of their fleet to electric by March 2023, and completely to March 2025.

Electric Cars

Electric cars will get an incentive of ₹10,000 per kWh of battery capacity for the first 1000 cars with a limit of ₹1.5 lakh per vehicle. All leased and hired cars of GNTCD (Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi ) officers will switch to electric in a year.

Electric Auto & Carriers

There will be a purchase incentive of ₹30,000 on three-wheelers, and an interest subvention of 5% on loans or hire purchase scheme for electric autos. Electric carriers will be exempt from plying and idle parking of light goods vehicles on identified roads of NCT during specified timings.

Electric Buses

All bus operators including smaller ones will be required to convert 50 per cent of their fleets to electric.

Charging infrastructure

All new home and workplace parkings will have to be EV ready with 20 per cent charging stations. The state government will give 100% subsidy on charging equipment purchase up to ₹6,000 per charging point for the first 30,000 charging points. This subsidy will be available via DISCOMS.