You Will Soon Get Up To Rs 1.5 Lakh For Buying An Electric Car In Delhi

• Electric four-wheeler buyers to get a grant of Rs 10,000 per kWh of battery capacity.
• The state government will induct 35,000 electric vehicles for public transportation.
• Road tax and registration charges will be waived for all EVs in Delhi for the next three years.
• 250 public charging and battery swapping stations will be set up in the city.

The Delhi government plans to tackle pollution in the city by incentivising and facilitating the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) in the national capital. It approved the Delhi Electric Vehicle Policy 2019 on Monday. Under the new policy, a grant of Rs 10,000 per kWh of battery capacity will be awarded to the first 1,000 four-wheeler buyers. The maximum amount of the grant is capped at Rs 1.5 lakh.

Official cars are currently leased in Delhi. The government plans to transition this fleet to electric in the next 12 months. Thus, current leases of cars used by state government officials will slowly be discontinued. By early next year, there will be four EVs on sale in India. The MG ZS EV and Tata Nexon EV will join the ranks of Hyundai Kona and Tata Tigor EV. The transition is expected to be proportional to EV production in India.

Another benefit to EV buyers targets home chargers. Electric car manufacturers invariably offer a 7.2kWh charger which can be set up at home or office by the user. While some carmakers may set up your charger for free, others charge a price for it. The first 30,000 people to buy electric cars in Delhi will get Rs 6,000 off of their first wall charger.

The state government has also called for a separate electric vehicle cell in the transport department to implement the new policies. It is likely to be presided by an electric vehicle board which will also be set up.

Wondering how Delhi plans to pay for the incentives? It will create a state fund for electric vehicles. This will draw from road tax collections and pollution cess from combustion cars. Other charges collected for environment compensation and cesses will also contribute to this fund.

The incentives have also been extended to two and three wheelers in the city. The latter will get a grant of Rs 30,000 per vehicle and a rebate of 5 per cent on each auto loan. The former will get Rs 5,000 per kWh of battery capacity. A scrapping incentive of Rs 5,000 will be subject to similar contribution from the two wheeler manufacturer. The incentives are expected to transition half the fleet of bikes and scooters used for delivery and ride-hailing services to electric by March 2023. By March 2025, the entire fleet of service two-wheelers in the state will be electric.

The efforts from the Delhi government are commendable in their insight. It remains to be seen how they are executed. While Delhi is one of the most polluted cities in the world, other Indian cities are also coming up in the ranking. We hope the Delhi government’s plans and actions will set an example for other state governments.

Source: The Economic Times