The installation of 500 electric vehicle charging points by June 2022 – available on an app that shows how far each is from a user’s location – is a part of the Delhi government’s EV push, Indian Express has learned.
This, along with asking cab aggregators and delivery services to convert 25% of its fleet to EVs and gradually increase it, the government plans to shift vehicles on the capital’s roads away from fossil fuels – to the extent that By 2024, it expects 25% of newly registered vehicles to be electric.
For this, the government is expected to use around Rs 100 crore from the Environment Compensation Fee (ECC) fund for its state EV fund.
Jasmine Shah, vice-chairman of the Delhi Dialogue and Development Commission, said a petition was filed in the Supreme Court in August to use the ECC to provide subsidy on electric vehicles.
Initially, around Rs 10 crore from the fund will be used to strengthen the power grid and upgrade infrastructure to ensure uninterrupted power supply to around 100 EV charging points and battery swapping stations, for which a recent Revised tender was issued.
Locations have been identified for these points and most are on land owned by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC). A total of 200 such stations should be commissioned soon and the target is to set up 500 charging points by June next year.
The city currently has 145 charging stations with 292 points, but none are managed by the Delhi government. Shah said the first seven stations with 42 charging points being set up by the government are likely to be operational next month. These stations, set up by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), will be in seven DTC bus depots, including IP Extension, Mehrauli and Kalkaji. Electric buses are also likely to be introduced next month, in which the registration of 30 such vehicles will be completed.
The facility of locating the charging stations is being done by the ‘OneDelhi’ app which will provide information about the availability and type of charging points and also the cost per unit. The app, developed by Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, is likely to be launched in mid-November.
Simultaneously, the Delhi Transport Department is in the final stages of developing guidelines for aggregators such as ride-hailing platforms and food delivery services to convert their fleet to electric. A stakeholder consultation has already taken place on this, and guidelines may be outlined for public comments soon. Creating an EV mandate for such aggregators may involve starting with around 25% of their fleet and then scaling it up.
Indicating a subtle shift in the new medium from July 1 to September 30, the share of EVs in new vehicle registrations was 7%, which exceeded the share of CNG vehicles at 6%.
The number of electric cabs in Delhi is also set to increase, with BlueSmart Mobility, an all-electric ride hailing service opting to buy 3,500 electric cars to add to its fleet. Delhi government data shows that about 48 per cent (128 out of 265 vehicles) of new cabs purchased between July and September this year were electric.
About 1% of the total number of motor cars purchased during the same time frame were electric (422 out of 36,404), while 51% (496 out of 979) of three-wheeled goods vehicles were electric.
About 4% of the motorcycles bought between July and September were electric (2,603 out of 66,268 purchases) – this segment is expected to account for a major part of the EV push.
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