The cumulative total sales of electric vehicles in India’s capital have exceeded 50,000 units this month, out of which EVs accounted for over 12.5% of new vehicle sales according to a senior state government official.
The Delhi state government launched its first EV policy in 2020. This offers customers a variety of incentives that go beyond the FAME II scheme. It stated that it aimed to electrify 25% of new vehicle sales by 2024. The official stated that the state had achieved half of this target in just two years.
“Back in 2020, the share of EVs was just 1.2%. In the first quarter of this calendar year, the share was over 10%. In fact, in March, it was over 12.5%, which is halfway our stated target of 25% EV sales by 2024,” said Jasmin Shah, Vice Chairman, Dialogue and Development Commission of Delhi.
He continued, “Since the rollout of the policy, cumulative EV sales have also crossed 50,000 units–50,401 to be exact as on May 15. The largest share in this at 39% is electric two-wheelers followed by e-rickshaws at 37% and cars at 5%.”
“The success in Delhi shows that fast EV adoption is possible if the right policy is implemented in a timely and transparent manner. Our incentive disbursement process is transparent and money is transferred directly to the consumer’s account through DBT within 7-10 days,” he said.
He added, “Alongside that we realised early on that EV adoption is not going to take place through large vehicles but with two and three-wheelers. So our focus was there. There is strong impetus to building charging infrastructure as well. The city has 915 charging points including 165 battery swapping junctions and one of the lowest tariffs in the country of just INR 4-4.5 per unit.”
Although more than a dozen states have already announced their EV policies, some offer even better incentives. The EV policy in Delhi is one of the most comprehensive and useful policies that has been created. It provides incentives up to Rs 30,000 for two- and three-wheelers, and Rs 150,000 for electric four-wheelers. The policy’s scope was extended to electric cycles earlier this year.
“We are at the forefront of electrification but without any help, we will start feeling the churn of the incentives on our balance sheet. Better performing states should be extended some benefit. We aim to add 5,000 more buses to our fleet but some relaxation in policy is needed.”
To increase electrification, the government also uses mandates to target specific segments. In the case of auto-rickshaws, it granted licenses to only 4,000. It also decided that all new city bus purchases would be electric.
The Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) has recently purchased 300 buses. It was also awarded 1500 buses in the grand e-bus challenge by CESL.