UP To Turn Noida Into An Emobility Role Model, Aims For 1 Mn EVs By 2024

The Uttar Pradesh government has now doubled down on its electric mobility initiatives. The state government in its maiden policy on electric vehicles has listed down various long terms plans including the aim to attract investments worth INR 40,000 Cr into electric vehicle manufacturing by 2024.

An ET report has said that in the maiden policy, UP government has listed down incentives for electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers and aims to create 50,000 new jobs in the area. To begin with, it has identified Varanasi, Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Agra, Prayagraj, Kanpur, Mathura, Ghaziabad, Meerut and Noida as ‘model emobility cities’.

Here the efforts will be made to convert 70% of public transport vehicles to EVs by 2030. Further, Noida will be the pilot city for this project in 2020. Also in these 10 cities the state government aims to replace 50% of cabs, school buses, ambulances and government vehicles with EVs by 2024.

The state has also promised 100% waiver of registration fee and road tax for the first 100K purchasers of EVs. It also plans to set up 200K electric charging stations by 2024 and put 1 Mn EVs, including 1K buses, on the road by then.

Further, all new housing and commercial complexes over 5,000 sq m will need to create EV charging facilities to get completion certificates. UP governor Anandiben Patel reportedly gave her assent to the policy last week.

The development is not all that surprising as the recent government data showed that Uttar Pradesh has the highest registered e-vehicles i.e. 1.39 Lakh. It was followed by Delhi and Karnataka at 75.7K and 31.94K respectively.

Features Of UP’s Electric Vehicle Policy

The state has close to 15,000 EVs currently and is the country’s biggest consumer market with over 10% of its registered vehicles working on electric powertrains. This market grew 81% between 2010 and 2015, the policy notes.

To further enhance manufacturing EV incentives, the government is offering  25% waiver in land cost and other benefits under the UP Investment Policy of 2017 for setting up EV or battery manufacturing units.

Also, 25% of the cost of setting up the first 1,000 EV charging stations in the state will be reimbursed by the government to the tune of INR 6 Lakh per station. It is being further said that  EV charging stations will be set up at every 50 km distance on all major expressways in the state.

The policy also emphasises that incentives will also be given to existing residential multi-storey buildings and IT parks to set up EV charging facilities.

The UP government is also proposing ‘private EV parks’ with plug-and-play facility where incentives will be offered to manufacturers of EVs and batteries. Ease of doing business with a single-window system and one-time disbursement of incentives has also been specified in the EV policy which is effective now.

The policy says MSME auto manufacturing capability exists in many areas of the state, making them viable for investment in EV manufacturing, and many other cities are hubs for manufacturing batteries.

State Of Emobility In India

The central government on its part is taking initiatives such as exemption of registration fees of electric vehicles and has also emphasised heavily on EVs in the Union Budget 2019.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed a new scheme which will invite global companies through a transparent competitive bidding process to set up mega manufacturing plants in sunrise and advanced technology areas including lithium storage batteries, and charging infrastructure.

NITI Aayog had proposed that only electric vehicles should be sold in India by 2030. For this, it called for full electric transition for three-wheelers by 2023 and two-wheelers with an engine capacity less than 150 CC by 2025.