Telangana To Launch Electric Vehicle Policy Today

As the Central government targets 30% electric vehicle mobility by 2030, the States have left no stone unturned to ensure maximum support to achieve this target. In lieu of this, the Telangana government will unveil an exclusive policy today (June 29) for promoting electric vehicles in the state.

“There will be several incentives for vehicle manufacturers, and also sops for setting up charging stations and other infrastructure. The policy has been prepared in consultations with the industry players and most of those expectations have been included in the policy,” the official said.

Telangana Industries and IT Minister K T Rama Rao will be unveiling the EV Policy today and will be joined by Mahindra & Mahindra managing director, Pawan Goenka and other industry leaders.

In October 2017, when the state shared its draft policy, Jayesh Ranjan, the state’s IT and Industries Secretary had revealed that the electric vehicle policy has three components — for manufacturers, support for users who want to shift to electric vehicles from a regular vehicle and about infrastructure.

A section of the policy will also focus on electrifying public transport, including buses, taxis and autorickshaws.

Earlier, it was also reported that the Hyderabad Metro Rail will be creating EV charging facilities at all the metro stations. Out of the total 64 metro stations, 24 have already been commissioned for developing the infrastructure for the same.

States Burgeoning Electric Vehicle Policy Initiatives

After Karnataka, Telangana was the second Indian state to consider instituting a policy for electrically-powered cars.

Let’s take a look at what different state governments have stacked up for promoting electric vehicles:

• Karnataka introduced its Electric Vehicle and Energy Storage Policy 2017 in September 2017. The policy envisions to make the state a hub for the production of alternative fuel vehicles, and push the ‘Make In Karnataka’ initiative.
• Soon after, Maharashtra also introduced its Electric Vehicle Policy 2018 which aims to create a support infrastructure for the production of up to 500K electric vehicles in the state within the next five years. In line with this goal, the state government also proposed exempting EVs from road tax and registration charges in Maharashtra.
• In March 2018, the Uttar Pradesh state government announced that it has created a roadmap for promoting the development of electric vehicle manufacturing capacity in the state, called the Draft Uttar Pradesh Electric Vehicles Manufacturing Policy 2018. The state’s Startup Fund was to be utilised to promote electric vehicle startups.
• At present, UP claims to be the third largest beneficiary under the FAME India programme, with 16,038 EVs — including two-wheelers, three-wheelers, and cars — on the road.
• Another state supporting electric vehicle is Goa, which in January 2018 announced that it would exempt electric vehicles from road tax.
• In March 2018, the Andhra Pradesh government too unveiled plans to come up with a comprehensive EV policy. It planned to host a meeting with EV and battery manufacturers, technology providers, and public sector departments to chart out a roadmap for adoption of electric mobility in the state.

According to Society of Manufacturers of the Electric Vehicles, EV market in India was about 25,000 units at the end of 2016-17, with 92% being two-wheelers. The share of electric cars and four-wheelers was less than 8% of the total sales. According to the study, over 4,330 EVs were sold in Gujarat, 2,846 in West Bengal, 2,467 in Uttar Pradesh and 2,388 in Rajasthan during the fiscal year.

As the Centre and State work towards ensuring electric vehicle mobility in the country, the revolution in the automobile industry is expected to be huge.