While many might think that Delhi would be one of the regions where you will get to find the most number of Electric Vehicles (EVs). However, they will be wrong. Delhi hosts the second highest number of registered EVs, following behind Uttar Pradesh according to a report by the road transport and highways ministry. As of now, a total of 8.7 lakh EVs are registered across states and out of all the EVs registered in the country, UP and Delhi host around 44 percent.
The report does not include the number of registered EVs in Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Lakshadweep. The reason behind the exclusion is that the data from these states is not captured in the centralised Vahan-4 database.
The reason behind the high penetration in EV adoption in Delhi is that the state was one of the first to offer people a subsidy to opt-in for EVs over their internal-combustion engine (ICE) counterparts. However, there was a cap on the subsidies for the first 1,000 electric cars, which has been reached. There is no such cap for smaller EVs including e-rickshaws and two-wheelers.
To recall, Union road transport minister Nitin Gadkari in a written reply to a Parliament question stated that the heavy industries ministry back in 2015 had formulated Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India (FAME India) scheme to ramp up EV and hybrid vehicle adoption in the country, while reducing dependency on fossil fuels.
Recently, to provide a push to EV adoption in India, a parliamentary panel urged the central government to maintain a live database of active charging stations installed all over the country. This will help the government in knowing the gaps that might hinder people from shifting to electric vehicles, while at the same time helping build a database, which can be used by EV owners to easily locate the nearest charging station.
Source: bgr.in
