Delhi’s Draft EV Policy hailed as “The best India has seen so far” by Experts

At a recent stakeholders consultation organised by the Delhi government’s Dialogue and Development Commission (DDC) in partnership with the Rocky Mountain Institute to discuss the state’s new draft Electric Vehicle policy, several industry leaders and experts in the matter of electric mobility hailed the Delhi government’s draft EV Policy, 2018, as the “best in India so far”.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was the chief guest and inaugurated the consultations in the presence of Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot, DDC Vice-Chairperson Jasmine Shah, and Commissioner (Transport) Varsha Joshi. Speaking at the event, Kejriwal said, “We (Delhi Govt) are fully committed to taking bold steps to fight air pollution and like, the odd-even scheme, is ready to make all necessary efforts to transition the transport sector in Delhi to electric vehicles.”

IIT-Madras Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, a former advisor to the Centre on its Electric Vehicle Policy, hailed the Delhi government’s draft policy as “the best India has seen so far”. While also emphasizing on the need for innovation and research to bring price parity between conventional and electric vehicles to help support the transition to the cleaner fuel based vehicles.

Last month, concerned with the deteriorating levels of air quality in the capital, the AAP government released the state’s first draft electric vehicle policy. A move they expect will help tackle the severe air quality problems in the NCR in the long-term. The primary target under the new policy is to ensure that at least 25 percent of the new cars to hit the roads by 2023 in the capital will be electric vehicles.

Under the policy, the Delhi government has proposed the following:

1. A subsidy of up to Rs 22,000 on the purchase of electric bikes or scooters to ensure their cost is less than or equal to petrol two-wheelers.
2. Additional subsidy for vehicles that support battery swapping, while incentives of up to Rs 15,000 would be scrapped on old Bharat Stage (BS) II and III two-wheelers.
3. All taxes and fees (road tax, registration fees and one-time parking fee at MCD) will be waived for all-electric vehicles.
4. Individual electric auto-rickshaws and e-rickshaws owners will get a down payment subsidy between Rs 12,500 and Rs 20,000, respectively.
5. Passengers using e-auto rickshaws and e-cabs will get a cashback of up to Rs 10 per trip.
6. To realise the claim of having a charging point at every 3 kilometres, the policy will offer a subsidy of 100% (up to Rs 30,000) to set up charging points (for the first 10,000 points) in Delhi.
7. Building laws for both upcoming and existing buildings in the capital will be amended to ensure they have an EV charging point and a special tariff for electricity used by EVs.

Transport Minister Kailash Ghalot said, “The Delhi government had already made the commitment to induct 1,000 e-buses, more than anywhere in India, and the ambitious draft Delhi EV policy was a step further to establish Delhi as the EV capital of India.“