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RS 300Cr Incentive to promote EV adoption: Punjab Government
Laljit Singh Bhullar, the transport minister for Punjab, claimed that the state government will offer incentives totalling over INR 300 Cr over the following three years to encourage the use of
electric vehicles
(EVs), reports suggested.Incentives would be offered by the state government to electric
two-wheelers
, electric rickshaws, electric cars, electric cycles, and electric light commercial vehicles (LCVs), according to a report from PTI. The state-level EV committee, which oversees the execution of the state's EV policy, met on Wednesday (June 21), during which he made the statement.Additionally, Bhullar instructed the transport department's representatives to ask the finance division to establish a special EV fund to aid in the adoption of EVs. According to reports, Bhullar also took note of all the duties assigned to the various departments that would be working on the implementation of the EV policy.
Bhullar gave officials from the Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd and the Punjab Energy Development Agency a month to put up a report on installing EV charging stations and find acceptable locations. Additionally, he requested that the Housing and Urban Department authorities create a strategy to make sure that EV charging stations are installed in the state's planned malls and housing societies.
He also advocated for speeding up the transition from government buses that are more than 15 years old to e-buses.
The state of Punjab released its Electric Vehicle Policy, 2022 in February of this year in an effort to promote EV adoption. The state government intends to encourage the first 1 Lakh EVs registered in the state under the scheme. Up to INR 10,000 in incentives will be given to these automobiles.
To the first 10,000 purchasers of electric autorickshaws and e-rickshaws as well as 5,000 purchasers of e-cars, incentives of up to INR 30,000 are intended. Aside from that, the first 5,000 LCVs will also receive incentives of up to INR 30,000–INR 50,000. For three years, the policy would be in effect.
In an effort to encourage the usage of EVs, the state government released its EV policy at a time when an increasing number of state governments are doing the same. The governments of Chhattisgarh, Haryana, and Maharashtra also revealed their individual incentive programmes for EVs last year.
Punjab's adoption of EVs is still far lower than that of states like Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Delhi. According to Vahan statistics, 14,055 EVs were registered in Punjab in 2022, compared to 1,62,857 in Uttar Pradesh. 25,861 electric vehicles (EVs) were registered in Haryana last year, and 62,266 EVs were registered in Delhi.
Only 9,908 electric vehicle registrations have been made in Punjab as of yet, which is fewer than the states like Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Assam, Odisha, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu as well as its neighbours. The overall number of electric cars (EVs) in Punjab was 25,597 as of early March of this year, compared to 1.3 Cr of total automobiles across all fuel kinds.