The Delhi government intends to expand its Electric Vehicle (EV) policy till March 2025 with Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot, who took operation, conducting his department to draw up a plan concerning the expansion and present the file before the Cabinet for consent.
With this, the recipients’ wait is probably about to come to an end for the Delhi government’s subsidy and other benefits like road tax exemption following the purchase of a new e-vehicle.
“Work on the EV policy 2.0 has begun, and the final document will be ready in two to three months. In order to speed the project, I have also instructed the Principal Secretary, Transport. To ensure that the public is not inconvenienced, I have also instructed the department to present a proposal for an extension of the current policy in the interim,” said Gahlot.
“We intend to keep the current policy in place until March. The sum and benefits will be paid to those who sought for subsidies within the last six months…,” he added.
Launched in August 2020, the policy is one of the main initiatives of the AAP government. Its goal is to reduce vehicle pollution and raise the percentage of electric vehicles (EVs) in the country to 25% by 2024. In August 2023, the policy came to an end after three years. It was extended by the government by six months, to December. Another six-month extension was scheduled to expire in January in order to allow time for the finalization of the EV policy 2.0.
“It has, however, been in limbo for the previous six months. Because then-CM Arvind Kejriwal chaired the Cabinet and was imprisoned, the proposal was not approved for a number of reasons, including the Lok Sabha elections. Now that Atishi has been nominated as the new chief minister, we anticipate holding a cabinet meeting next week and extending the policy,” a senior official stated.
The Transport Department released data showing that since 2020, electric vehicles have accounted for 9% of all vehicles registered in Delhi.
In Delhi, 2,20,618 electric vehicles were sold or registered between August 2020 and August 2024. Of them, 2,14,805 were battery-operated vehicles and 5,813 were pure EVs.
Up till August of this year, 10.71% of EVs were sold in Delhi. In 2023, the overall sales of EVs were 11.02%.
Additionally, the data reveals that 53,587 e-vehicles were sold and registered in Delhi between January and August of this year. These consist of 4,181 goods carriers, 1,760 taxis, 3,745 vehicles, 25,008 two-wheelers, 6,414 three-wheelers (comprising both passenger and cargo), 117 motorized cycles, and 15,626 e-rickshaws and e-rickshaw carts.
