UP announces e-vehicles policy, targets Rs 40,000 cr investment by 2024

The Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday announced the much-awaited electric vehicles (e-vehicles) policy, which targets attracting nearly Rs 40,000 crore in private investment over the next 5 years.

The policy, which had been in the making for quite some time, was cleared by the state cabinet meeting chaired by chief minister Adityanath on Tuesday. The government has projected the e-vehicles segment will create about 50,000 new employment opportunities.

 “We have envisaged by 2024, nearly 70% of public transport buses plying on the state roads would be electric, while about 10,000 new electric buses would be introduced for public transport,” UP health minister and government spokesperson Sidharth Nath Singh told the media after the meeting.

The government has projected almost 200,000 charging stations would be set up in the state over the next few years by the private sector to cater to the growing fleet of public and private e-vehicles.

So far, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Maharashtra have rolled out their e-vehicles policies. However, being the largest consumer state UP is counting on the high-growth potential of the sector.

The new policy promises a host of sops to encourage private investment in the growing space, which is among the topmost priorities of the Centre to promote green transport solutions, cut emissions and pare burgeoning oil import bill.

“The policy focuses on 3 main planks, including promoting manufacturing to e-vehicles in the state, setting up of charging stations and generating demand for e-vehicles,” Singh said adding the sector was key to cutting emissions and reducing the oil import bill.

Under the policy, the state has offered various incentives, including land cost subsidy of 25%, up to Rs 50 lakh subsidy on capital investment (capex) for technology transfers and Rs 25 lakh capex subsidy on charging stations to mega anchor units and ultra mega battery units, UP principal secretary industrial development Rajesh Kumar Singh said.

The policy further offers 100% rebate on registration of e-vehicles, apart from 25% rebate on road tax.

“Although, various states have already announced their e-vehicles policies, but we have made our policy even more attractive for the private sector, since unlike these states, UP is a landlocked state and does not have the facility of seaports,” he added.

Recently, Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran had observed that the group saw the immense potential in UP for sectors, including renewable energy, mobility, electric vehicles, charging infrastructure etc. He said UP was inarguably the most important state in India and its success was imperative for achieving the country’s ambitious target of $5 trillion economy by 2024.

He was speaking at the second groundbreaking ceremony on July 28, where union home minister Amit Shah laid the foundation of industrial projects totalling more than Rs 65,000 crore.