Every fourth new vehicle to be electric by 2024: Delhi Govt

The Delhi government is aiming to have 25 per cent of all new vehicles to be electric by 2024 in the Delhi Electric Vehicle Policy 2019. The State is offering subsidies for setting up charging stations, purchase of new vehicles and interest subventions to boost adoption of electric vehicles (EVs).

An official statement said the policy particularly focuses on electric two-wheelers, shared transport vehicles (e.g. three-wheelers/buses) and goods carriers/freight vehicles, since they contribute to majority of the vehicular pollution. “Currently, electric two-wheelers constitute only 0.2 per cent of annual two-wheeler sales, electric cars contribute to 0.1 per cent of car sales and the sales of electric three-wheelers (autos/goods carriers) are almost nil,” the statement said.

The policy is offering a purchase incentive of ₹10,000 per kWh of battery capacity for the first 1,000 cars subject to a cap of ₹1,50,000 per vehicle. The Delhi government will also provide a 100 per cent subsidy for the purchase of charging equipment up to ₹6,000 per charging point for the first 30,000 charging points at homes or workplaces. A purchase incentive of ₹30,000 per vehicle (up from nil at present) will be offered for electric autos, e-rickshaws and e-carriers. An interest subvention of 5 per cent on loans and/or hire purchase scheme for the purchase of an e-auto has also been introduced.

“In the next 5 years, Delhi government is targeting to have 5 lakh new EVs register in Delhi due to this policy. Over their lifetime, these EVs are estimated to avoid approximately ₹6,000 crore in oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports and 4.8 million tonnes of CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions, which is equivalent to avoiding CO2 emissions from nearly 1 lakh petrol cars over their lifetime. They will also help avoid about 159 tonnes of PM 2.5 (fine particulate matter) tailpipe emissions,” the statement said.

The Delhi government is also targeting the induction of 35,000 electric vehicles (2/3/4 Wheelers and buses), 1,000 EVs for last mile deliveries and 250 public charging/swapping stations to come up in the State.