Transport – Transition to Electric

Electric Vehicle (EV) Policy 

The AAP Delhi Government is aiming to make Delhi the EV Capital of the country. It has set aggressive goals for electrifying vehicles in the city. This will promote zero-emission and green mobility, and align well with India’s goals of reducing its oil-import bill and air pollution.

On 7th Aug 2020, the AAP Government notified the most progressive Electric Vehicle Policy in India. It had been approved by the Cabinet on 23rd Dec 2019.

The Delhi EV Policy offers the purchase and scrapping incentives over and above the incentives offered to EVs under the FAME-India phase-II scheme. Combined with the exemption of road tax and registration fees on EVs, the cost of owning and operating electric three-wheelers and electric taxis reduce by approximately 26 and 35 percent respectively.

The AAP government has set up a dedicated EV cell and a State EV Board to ensure proper policy implementation and day-to-day operations. 

There are many firsts in the Delhi government’s Electric Vehicle Policy which are going to give a fillip to the EV market. This Policy will also boost the economy by generating employment in addition to reducing air pollution in the capital.

The target of the AAP government is to increase the EV penetration to 25% by 2024. To this end, the government hopes to utilise around Rs 100 crore from the Environment Compensation Charge (ECC) corpus for its State EV fund.

Govt vehicles moving to EV: After the launch of the Electric Vehicle Policy in August 2020, various departments and autonomous bodies of the Delhi government have started replacing old petrol and diesel vehicles in their fleets with electric vehicles.

Purchase Incentives for e-vehicles (EVs)

Purchase Incentives for e-vehicles (EVs)

On 24th Dec 2019, the following EV subsidies were announced by the Delhi Govt:

• For 2-wheelers:
  • Purchase incentive of ₹5,000 per kWh of battery capacity 
• For autorickshaws and e-rickshaws:
  • Purchase Incentive of ₹30,000 per vehicle.
  • Interest subvention of 5% on loans and/or hire purchase scheme for the purchase of an e-auto
• For 4-wheelers:
  • Purchase incentive of ₹10,000 per kWh of battery capacity for first 1000 cars subject to a cap of Rs 1,50,000 per vehicle
• For buses (public transport):
  • Subsidy as decided by GNCTD
• Across all vehicles:
  • All financial incentives are applicable for both fixed battery models and swappable battery models. 
  • Road tax and registration fees to be waived for all Battery Electric Vehicles during the period of this policy

(Source: EVReporter – link)

On 24th Dec 2019, Delhi became the first city in the country where road tax and registration fees for all types of EV were waived. The eligibility criteria to avail subsidies have also been simplified and made universal.

Innovative schemes / campaigns to promote adoption of EVs

• On 24 Dec 2019, the Delhi government announced a  “scrapping incentive” under the electric vehicle policy, a first-of-its-kind in the country.

• For e-autos, an open permit system has been provided to individuals, who will be given permits on a first-come-first-served basis, subject to a cap of the maximum number of autos allowed in Delhi, according to SC orders.

• One of the most attractive aspects of the EV policy is the feebate concept. In all these years, central and various state governments have been promoting EVs through demand incentives offering rebates but falling short of creating supply incentives. The ‘feebate’ concept will fund a high proportion of the incentives proposed in the policy.

• An intensive public outreach program from 3rd to 6th Apr 2021 called “Switch Delhi” focused on creating awareness about the benefits of EV and the EV policy.

• On 22nd Sep 2021, Delhi Government approved a proposal to induct only e-autos from now, instead of CNG autos. Further 4261 auto permits will be up for grabs from October, 2021 –  33% of them (i.e. 1406) will be reserved for women auto drivers. Rules will be relaxed to allow Light Motor Vehicle driving licence holders to apply for an auto permit, a PSV badge is no longer mandatory.

• On 19th Nov 2021, the Delhi government took two significant steps to boost Electric Vehicles (EVs) numbers in the city:
  • In a first, it has allowed old diesel vehicles to be retrofitted into EVs. This will enable their use beyond the prescribed time span of 10 years.
  • Electric-light commercial vehicles (e-LCVs) will now be exempted from time-specific route restrictions and prohibition on idle parking, which are currently applicable to all goods vehicles to reduce pollution and decongest the city.

• To encourage a recycling ecosystem, the re-use and recycling of EV batteries that have reached the end of their life will be promoted.

• Measures will be implemented to train personnel for the EV ecosystem.

Building EV Infrastructure

The EV policy focuses on creating an enabling environment for the provision of charging/swapping infrastructure at every 3 kms. 

On 7th Mar 2021, there were 72 EV charging stations in Delhi. The government’s target was to set up an additional 100 charging stations with a total of 500 charging points within 6 months.

On 9th Nov 2021, Transport Minister Kailash Gehlot inaugurated the Single Window Facility for installing EV charging stations. He also highlighted how Delhi offers the cheapest charging cost in the country.

<Source: Delhi Gov Digital Tweet>

As of 5th Nov 2021, as part of the Delhi government’s EV push, installation of 500 electric vehicle charging points were underway and were expected to be completed by June 2022. The charging points will be accessible on the ‘One Delhi’ app that shows how far each is from the user’s location, the type of charging point, and the cost per unit. 

“With a vision of providing public charging within 3 km anywhere in Delhi, the government and Discoms have facilitated setting up 201 charging stations with over 380 charging points across Delhi in the past two years — the highest for any city nationally. Another 600 public charging points are to be added by mid-2022, majority at metro stations and bus depots.” – Jasmine Shah, Vice-Chairman, DDC, on 13th Dec 2021 (Link)

By Jan 2022, the AAP government had installed 377 charging points across 170 locations.

MoU with CESL

DTC has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with CESL (Convergence Energy Services Ltd) for installation of charging stations and battery swapping stations at select DTC locations. 

According to the MoU, CESL will procure, install, operate and maintain charging units and related infrastructure at its own expense at 7 DTC locations –  Dwarka sector-8, Dwarka sector 2 depot, Mehrauli terminal, Nehru Place terminal, Okhla CW-II, Sukhdev Vihar depot and Kalkaji depot. It will also pay DTC a monthly amount of ₹1 per kWh of energy dispensed. 

Once commissioned, EV owners will be able to track the availability of slots at the charging stations even on the Delhi government’s One Delhi mobile application.

CESL will, wherever feasible, integrate solar rooftops and connect it to battery storage systems (BSS), thereby using renewable energy to power the charging stations.

On Jan 19 2022, Delhi became the first state govt to introduce easy financing with 5% interest subvention scheme for purchase of electric 3 wheelers. This effectively doubles Delhi govt subsidy on e3Ws from Rs 30,000 to 55,000.

EV Guidebooks for Corporates, Malls, RWAs and Govt Offices to expand charging infrastructure

• On 29th Nov 2021, the Delhi Government released the “Workplace Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Guidebook for Corporates in Delhi”, authored by DDC and WRI (World Resources Institute) India, in the presence of senior industry leaders from CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM etc. It provides step-by-step guidance to help employers adopt workplace charging of EVs. It is the first such effort anywhere in India.

“The just-concluded COP26 has highlighted the importance of reducing emissions from the transport sector. Zero-emission transport through EVs will reduce emission from the transport sector and contribute towards cleaner air.”  – Dr OP Agarwal, CEO, WRI India

• On 4th Feb 2022, the Delhi Govt launched ‘EV Charging Guidebook for Shopping Malls’ to enable planning and implementation of EV charging stations in the parking areas of malls. Representatives of shopping malls have expressed their support to install EV chargers in at least 5% of their parking slots over the next six months.

“In addition to incentives and the step-by-step guidebook launched today, the Delhi government will also provide hand-holding support through the state EV Cell to all malls that commit to achieving the target of installing chargers for 5% of their parking slots in the next six months,” Jasmine Shah, Vice-Chairperson, Dialogue & Development Commission Vice-Chairperson

(Source: WRI tweet)

AAP Delhi government has instructed all its departments and autonomous local bodies to identify suitable locations and install public electric vehicle charging stations at their premises.

The government departments, which install the chargers at their premises through this process will obtain the chargers net of subsidy and therefore will not have to separately raise any claim for subsidy. Meanwhile, the vendors would claim the subsidy through DISCOM from the transport department electric vehicle fund.

On Mar 2 2022, with the launch of the residential EV charging guidebook, Delhi becomes the first state in India to make RWAs and residential areas an integral part of the EV revolution.

<Source: Times of India>

Delhi Government has taken several steps, including directing all residential institutions with a parking capacity of 100 or more vehicles to reserve 5% of their parking space for EVs with suitable EV chargers with a minimum output of 3.3KW. As per Delhi Development Authority’s amended United Building Bye-Laws (2016), 20% of all parking capacity in buildings must be provided with charging infrastructure for EVs.

“Research suggests, most of the private motor vehicles are parked for 95% of the time in the parking spaces of residential societies. This provides an excellent opportunity to charge these vehicles if they are electric. Therefore, with the launch of the Residential EV charging Guidebook, the Delhi Government has addressed the most important aspect of EV charging, which is home charging.” Amit Bhatt, Executive Director (Integrated Transport), WRI India (Link)

EV Policy – Successes & Milestones Reached

Disbursement of EV Incentive Claims

76% of the claims for EV incentives were disbursed by Dec 2020.

Number of EVs registered

By end-Aug 2021, as many as 17,605 new EVs had been registered since the date of notification of the policy in Aug 2020. In the months of July and Aug 2021, the registration of Electric vehicles was actually more than that of CNG vehicles. 
As of 10th Sep 2021, Delhi has already recorded more e-vehicle registrations in 2021 than the whole of 2020.

(Source: Times of India dated 10th Sep 2021 – Link)

EV penetration

Prior to this policy, the total number of EVs in the newly purchased vehicles in Delhi was 0.2%. Within 7 months of the introduction of the EV policy in August 2020, the share of EV purchased had increased from 0.2% to 2.21%. 

As of 5th Nov 2021, the e-vehicle share (out of total new vehicles registered) in Delhi was 7%. The EV share jumped from 1% to 7% in just 1 quarter.

During Sep to Nov 2021, Electric Vehicles accounted for 9% of vehicles sold in Delhi, 6 times higher than the national average of 1.6%. With 9540 EVs being sold in Delhi, the sale of electric vehicles surpassed that of CNG and Diesel vehicles.

In 2021, the share of EVs in total vehicle registrations was 5.6%. 

EVs have also risen to the second spot among the various types of vehicles sold during 2021.

As of Dec 15 2021, Electric Vehicles in the last quarter overtook CNG And Diesel vehicle sales in Delhi! Sales of e-vehicles in Delhi are almost 6 times higher than in other parts of the country.

As on Feb 7 2022, Delhi has contributed to 25 percent of electric commercial vehicles sales in the country since 2019 (785 electric taxis out of the 1,609 units sold nationally and 1,068 electric goods carriers out of  4,035 units sold nationally).

<Source: Hindustan Times>

A future-ready approach to urban mobility

Collaboration with industry

On 26th Jun 2019, the Delhi govt launched the Urban Mobility Lab initiative. The government hosted a workshop in June 2019 to work collaboratively with the industry to design mobility solutions for first-mile, last-mile connections and integrated public transport solutions.

On Feb 10 2022, the Delhi govt notified its draft policy for aggregators and delivery services, whereby they will have to ensure that 50 per cent of all their new two-wheelers and 25 percent of new four-wheelers are electric by March 2023. They will also have to ensure that 10 percent of all new two-wheelers and 5 percent of all new four-wheelers are electric in the next three months. The aim is to bring down pollution levels in the national capital by 30% by the end of 2024. Other features of this draft policy include fixing base fare, cap on max surge fare, new criteria for annual licensing for operators, driver rating & training, etc.

The EV push got a leg up with BluSmart Mobility, an all-electric ride hailing service, choosing to purchase 3,500 electric cars to add to their fleet. Around 48% (128 out of 265 vehicles) of the new cabs purchased between July and September 2021 were electric.

Induction of e-buses in DTC/Cluster Bus fleet

As of 10th Mar 2021, the Delhi Govt had plans to acquire 1300 Electric buses. The city is set to possess the largest fleet of electric buses across all global cities (outside China).

On 7th Oct 2021, the DTC Board approved induction of 1,245 low floor buses, including 1,015 electric buses.

On 9th Oct 2021, the Delhi govt completed modifying bus depots to serve the first fleet of electric buses – 

On 28th Oct 2021, the Delhi govt gave a big push for green mobility by embracing an ‘e-buses only’ policy for all future procurements.

(Source: Hindustan Times – Link)

The first electric bus has arrived in Delhi.

• On Nov 24 2021, the first 3 prototypes from a lot of 300 electric buses arrived in Delhi for trial runs.  The first of these was flagged off by the CM on Jan 17 2022.
• 300 more buses to arrive in the following months.
• This is part of the induction plan of Transport department to induct 3500 new e-buses to the DTC and Cluster fleet
• Features in the new electric bus include being pollution free, with CCTV, GPS, panic button, fully air-conditioned, comfortable seats, fire extinguisher, disability ramp, 2-way audio communication device for drivers etc.

Deployment of 300 electric buses is being done with financial assistance under the Central Govt’s FAME India (Faster Adoption & Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles) Phase 2 Scheme on an operational cost model. (Source: Delhi Economic Survey 2019-2020 – link)

Induction of EVs in Delhi government’s car fleet

On Feb 25th 2021, the AAP government announced that it would switch its entire fleet of over 2000 cars to electric vehicles within 6 months.