Delhi’s Electric Vehicle Policy Passed - Here’s What It Promises

The policy was first drafted in November 2018 and has finally got the green flag for implementation in the city.

The Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi has laid out an ambitious road map to increase the presence of electric vehicles on the city’s road by the year 2025. For this, the government has passed the Delhi Electric Vehicle Policy, which was first drafted back in November 2018.

With this go ahead, Kejriwal and co. are hopeful that having more electric vehicles (EVs) on the road could play a big role in cutting down the pollution levels in the city, which has become a regular issue now.

To change this trend, the policy wants to caters to EVs in all forms, including having them used for public transport purpose. Here are the key highlights of the policy and what can prospective EV buyers expect as incentives from the government in the capital region.

Bringing More EVs on the Road

As mentioned in the policy, the government wants to increase the footprint of EVs in the form of public transport vehicles. For this, it plans to have electric two-wheelers, shared transport vehicles (e.g. three-wheelers/buses) and goods carriers/freight vehicles, reducing the dependency on fuel-based vehicles.

They will do this by introducing over 35,000 electric vehicles (which will be 2/3 and 4 wheelers as well as buses). In addition to this, they want over 1,000 EVs for last mile deliveries (used by Swiggy or Zomato) and to make them viable, around 250 public charging/swapping stations will be set up in the region. They want more than 50 percent of all new buses to be electric during this period.

The policy also wants to convert third-party companies to switch their ride-hailing service to be provided via electric two-wheeler taxis. The companies will also be expected to move half of their fleet to electric by March 2023, and 100 percent conversion by March 2025.

All this has been planned out to achieve 25 percent of all new vehicle registrations by 2024 to switch to electric.

Incentive for Buyers

Public transport will be handled by the government, and for the personal buyers, the policy looks to entice them with a slew of incentives and subsidies that lower down the cost of owning an EV in the city.

The main objective of the policy is to avoid import of old and liquid natural gas by approximately Rs 6,000 crores and in the process bring down CO2 emissions by 4.8 million tonnes.

For the first 1,000 buyers of EVs in Delhi, they get purchase incentive of Rs 10,000 per kWh of battery capacity to a cap of Rs 1,50,000 per vehicle. Buyers will also avoid paying road tax and registration fees which will be waived off during the period of this policy.

For electric two-wheelers, purchase incentive of Rs 5,000 per kWh of battery capacity has been fixed for 2 kWh battery. The applicable incentive has also been increased from the current Rs 5,500 to approx Rs 10,000.

Charging Towards EV

But to put more EVs on the road, the policy understands the need to bolster the charging infrastructure in the city, and entities will be given decent subsidies on the equipment.

First of all, the policy mentions that all new homes and workplaces parking will need to be ‘EV ready’ which means over 20 percent of all vehicle holding capacity/parking should be able to accommodate EVs.

But more importantly, the Delhi government will offer 100 percent subsidy for the purchase of charging equipment costing up to Rs 6,000 per charging point. This has been capped for the first 30,000 charging points set up at homes/workplaces. This subsidy to be routed through DISCOMS who will be in-charge of charger installations.

The policy also suggests that a public charging or battery swapping facility will be offered within 3 km of any place in Delhi. The policy doesn’t mention a number but we’re hopeful, by 2025, there will be many places offering support for EVs.