Delhi govt to make 25% of all vehicles electric by 2023

In order to combat air pollution, the Delhi government on Tuesday released the draft of Delhi Electric Vehicle Policy 2018 for public comments.

The policy recognises that a new approach is required to kick-start EV adoption in the national capital, therefore, it seeks to put in place several measures that address the key hurdles to EV adoption and target 25 per cent of all new vehicle registrations to be electric by the year 2023.

"About 30 per cent of particulate pollution in winter is caused by vehicles. Rapid adoption of zero-emission electric vehicles is therefore of great importance to Delhi. Recognising the need for a new approach to kick-start electric vehicle adoption, we have drafted a comprehensive Delhi Electric Vehicle Policy with an aim to make Delhi a leader in adoption of electric vehicles. We believe that going electric and breathing better are two sides of the same coin," Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot said in a statement.

To tackle the increasing levels of air pollution, the Delhi government has planned to create a significant corpus of funds to incentivise every vehicle segment through the policy.

"All incentives are in addition to the incentive offered by the Government of India as part of the Scheme for Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid and) Electric Vehicles in India as notified on March 13, 2015 and any subsequent amendments thereof. This policy has also committed to strengthen the infrastructure for battery charging and swapping so as to provide access within 3 km range from anywhere in Delhi," a statement read.

Additional fees on non-electric vehicles will fund the bulk of corpus created to incentivise the adoption of electric vehicles. This policy will also seek to promote large-scale job creation in driving, selling, financing, servicing and charging of electric vehicles.