Four lakh EVs Plying on Indian Roads, 50% of them in Delhi, UP: Nitin Gadkari

Presently there are approximately four lakh registered electric or battery operated vehicles in India and half of them are in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, as per road transport ministry’s data. Sources said most of these vehicles are e-rickshaws and e-carts, which got legal status after Parliament approved a law in March 2015 to identify these as motor vehicles.

In a written reply, Union road transport minister Nitin Gadkari has educated the Lok Sabha that UP has 1.39 lakh registered electric vehicles followed by almost 75,600 in Delhi. Karnataka has third highest number of registered e-vehicles and Maharashtra comes next. Remarkably, Assam also has a high number of evehicles (15,192) among all northeastern states and more than many states in north, south and western India.

Sources said the actual number of electric vehicles would be much more than the official figure. This is because thousands of e-rickshaws have been operating across country without registration. This is despite the transport ministry in August 2016 coming out with a notification exempting e-rickshaws and e-carts from obtaining commercial permits to carry passengers or goods. This was done considering that these are “affordable” mode of transport for last mile connectivity in cities and also in rural areas.

The transport ministry in October 2018 also came out with the announcement granting exemption to battery operated commercial vehicles and those running on ethanol and methanol from the requirements of permits.

Gadkari has also suggested exemption of registration fee for EVs to encourage the use of ecofriendly vehicles in the country and it has pursued comments and objections from all stakeholders before taking a final decision.