In view of the poor air quality in the city, Delhi Cabinet on Thursday extended the Delhi Electric Vehicle Policy till March 31 next year. Delhi Chief Minister Atishi made the announcement of the extension and said that the Cabinet has decided to roll out subsidies and road tax exemptions which has been pending since January 1, 2024.
"The Delhi Cabinet has today decided to restart the stalled Delhi Electric Vehicle Policy. Till 2019-20, only 4 per cent of the vehicles registered in Delhi were electric vehicles, but after this progressive policy, today it has increased to 12 per cent, which is the highest in the country. When other parties could not implement such a policy in their states, this policy was stopped for months by sending Arvind Kejriwal to jail. Buyers did not get subsidy; there was no exemption on road tax," Atishi said on X in Hindi.
Following the announcement, electric vehicles (EVs) purchased on January 1 or after will get subsidy and road tax exemption.
Delhi EV Policy
Introduced in August 2020, EV policy offers a subsidy of Rs 5,000 per kWh of battery capacity (up to a maximum of Rs 30,000) for the purchase of an electric two-wheeler. Three-wheelers offer a flat subsidy of Rs. 30,000 per vehicle, regardless of the total cost and battery capacity involved.
It also grants a scrapping incentive of Rs 5,000 for electric two-wheelers and Rs 7,500 for electric three-wheelers. Moreover, the policy offers an interest subvention of 5 per cent for two-wheelers, e-carts and e-carriers for loans from the Delhi Finance Corporation and other approved finance providers.
This move comes amid flat electric car sales in the country for the past few months because of high prices and inadequate charging infrastructure. India has about 12,000 public charging stations which is much less than 87,000 fuel stations dispensing petrol and diesel.
