New Delhi: The Electric Vehicle Policy of the Delhi government marked two years of its launch this month. The Delhi government had launched the Delhi Electric vehicle policy, 2020 on August 7, 2020 with a mission to establish Delhi as the EV capital of India and to accelerate the pace of EV adoption across vehicle segments.
In February 2021, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had also launched the Switch Delhi campaign to spread awareness about the benefits of Electric vehicles in making Delhi clean and pollution-free. The current month marks the 2-years of completion of the Delhi EV policy, 2020.
The policy has brought significant disruption in Delhi’s EV landscape and proved to be an example for adoption in other states. Prior to the implementation of the policy, the Electric Vehicle market in Delhi was driven by E-rickshaw which contributed nearly 85% of total EV sales in Delhi.
The interest of people in E-rickshaws was driven by the promise of higher revenue with lesser input fuel costs. With rising concern over air pollution in the city, the Delhi government is committed to promote the maximum number of vehicles in Delhi on zero-emission fuel.
As two third of new vehicle registrations in Delhi comprise of 2W, the focus of the policy was to push the conversion of 2W and commercial 3W segments into the electric segment.
Delhi EV Policy’s success can be attributed to the i3 model of Incentivisation, Innovation and Inclusion.
Incentivisation
As on date, Delhi has offered an incentive of nearly 100 Crore on Electric vehicle sales, the highest amount of subsidy offered by any state in India. For creating demand and pushing the purchase of vehicles by consumers; the policy offered purchase incentives for various classes of electric vehicles.
In addition, Delhi waived-off road tax and Registration fees for all Battery Electric vehicles making them even more affordable. As a result, 62,483 Electric vehicles have been sold in the last 2 years since the start of the Delhi EV policy. With huge numbers of electric vehicles plying in Delhi, it automatically incentivised the charge point operators (CPO) to deploy more than 2000 charging points and battery swapping stations solving the issue of Range anxiety for all EV users.
Innovation
Delhi EV Policy focused on ensuring convenience to citizens buying and charging Electric vehicles in the state. In Feb 2021, the Delhi government launched a tender with Delhi Transco Limited (DTL) for 100 sites across Delhi, at one go, which will help with addition of nearly 900 charging points & 100+ Battery swapping stations.
One would be able to charge their Electric vehicles at less than Rs 2 per unit at these facilities; Lowest in the country. To make EV charging affordable, Delhi had already introduced one of the lowest EV tariffs in the country at Rs 4.5 per unit only.
Enabling tech-based solutions was important to ease down access to various services. Delhi Government started a single window facility in Nov 2021, to ease out the purchase of EV chargers from DISCOM’s online portal through 10+ impaneled vendors and gave 3 years warranty in the price including installation.
Delhi Government also created an online portal along with Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL), for the purchase of Electric autos and availing 5% interest subvention from the same. In May 2022, Delhi became the first state to incentivise E-cycles in India.
Inclusion
To make any policy successful, it is important that all relevant stakeholders are consulted and the opinion of experts is assimilated before the formulation of a policy. Delhi Government made sure to include views and suggestions of all stakeholders for the drafting of the policy.
It played a critical role in the success of the Delhi EV policy by removing the bottlenecks when the policy was implemented on the ground. Apart from providing incentives for vehicles in the private domain, the Delhi Government has also prioritised the procurement of electric buses in its city transportation fleet.
150 Electric buses are already plying on Delhi roads and the state will see nearly 2000 Electric buses by the end of 2023, which will be the highest in the country. The Electrification of 55 Bus Depots is in progress, with 3 already Electrified, 17 more to be electrified by June’23 and 35 by Dec’23 taking the number of electrified bus depots to 55.
In addition, the policy has also brought women at the forefront of the electric vehicle transition. Delhi Government reserved 33% permits especially for women out of a total of 4261 Electric auto permits issued by the government.
The mission of Delhi EV policy is to drive rapid adoption of Electric vehicles where they contribute to 25% of all new vehicle registrations by 2024. Delhi is already at the halfway mark with March 22 EV sales contributing to 12.5%.
On this occasion, Delhi’s Transport minister Shri Kailash Gahlot further stated, “Under the leadership of Chief Minister Shri Arvind Kejriwal, we are committed to make Delhi EV capital of the world.”
“On one side, Electric vehicles are helping Delhi with the reduction of emissions and air pollution, on the other side, it is also creating more employment opportunities, increasing earnings of commercial vehicles and auto-owners with lower cost of ownership and giving users an opportunity to take rides in No sound comfortable vehicles,” he added.
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