Over 18 Lakh EVs Registered In The Country, UP Leads The Race: Nitin Gadkari

Over 18 Lakh electric vehicles (EVs) are currently registered in India, with Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, and Maharashtra having the highest number of registrations, the government has informed the Parliament.

In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said that Uttar Pradesh, with over 4.1 Lakh EVs, has the maximum number of registered vehicles in this segment. It is followed by Delhi with over 1.8 Lakh registered EVs, while Maharashtra is at the third position with almost 1.8 Lakh EVs.

As per the government data, the three-wheeler transport category has emerged as the leader in terms of EV registrations. Almost 9.2 Lakh electric three-wheelers in the transport category are registered in the country. Meanwhile, a little over 8 Lakh electric two-wheelers in the non-transport category have been registered, according to the data shared by the minister.

Gadkari also said that currently there are a total of 5,151 operational public EV charging stations in the country.

While the pace of enhancing EV charging infrastructure was slow earlier, it seems that the government has started ramping it up with the growing demand for vehicles. In fact, the current number implies over a 200% surge from February this year when the total number of operational public EV charging stations stood at 1,640.

Karnataka has the highest number of charging stations (698), followed by Maharashtra with 660 public EV charging stations.

Meanwhile, though Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of EVs registered, public charging stations in the state stand only at 406. On the other hand, Delhi has 539 operational public EV charging stations.

Under phase-I of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India (FAME) scheme, the Ministry of Heavy Industries had sanctioned about 520 charging stations. In phase-II of the FAME scheme, 2,877 EV charging stations were sanctioned. Additionally, the ministry had also sanctioned 1,576 charging stations across nine expressways and 16 highways

In late 2020, Gadkari had announced setting up infrastructure for echarging kiosks at around 69K petrol stations across India in a bid to make India an EV nation by 2030.

In a separate reply to the Rajya Sabha, Minister Of State For Heavy Industries Krishan Pal Gurjar said on Friday (December 9) that the government has so far spent INR 2,464.27 Cr as demand incentives for the electric two-wheeler segment under the FAME-II scheme.

On the other hand, INR 351.21 Cr has been spent on the electric three-wheeler category under the scheme.

Last year, the government increased the demand incentive for electric two-wheelers to INR 15,000/KWh from INR 10,000/KWh with an increase in cap to 40% from 20% of the cost of vehicle.

However, it is pertinent to note that in a bid to strengthen the ‘Make In India’ initiative and ensure domestic manufacturing of EV components, the government has also tightened the rules under the FAME scheme.

The government is likely to suspend incentive payments to a few two-wheeler EV manufacturers, including Hero Electric and Okinawa, for their non-compliance with the localisation norms.

EV manufacturers like Ampere Vehicles, Revolt, and Jitendra EV are currently facing an audit by the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) for importing most EV components and still claiming benefits under the FAME-II scheme.

The number of two-wheeler EV registrations fell 1% to 76,163 units in November from 76,953 units in October, as per Vahan data on December 1.