According to the road transport ministry’s data, there are around four lakh registered electric or battery-operated vehicles in India and half of them are from Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. Most of these vehicles are e-rickshaws and e-carts which have received the legal status after Parliament passed a law in March 2015 to recognise these as motor vehicles.
The Union Transport Minister, Nitin Gadkari, has informed the Lok Sabha in a letter that UP has 1.39 lakhs registered electric vehicles which are followed by Delhi that has around 75,600 electric vehicles. The third in the list is Karnataka followed by Maharashtra. Among all the northeastern states, Assam has the highest number of e-vehicles (15,192).
As per the sources, the number of e-vehicles is much more than the official figures. The numbers are different because most of these e-vehicles has not been registered yet it has been operated all throughout the country. 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.
In October 2018, the transport ministry had also given exemptions to the battery-operated commercial vehicles and those running on ethanol and methanol from the requirements of permits.
Gadkari has also proposed exemption of registration fee for EVs to
promote the use of eco-friendly vehicles in the country and it has sought
comments and objections from all stakeholders before taking a final decision.
