Delhi becomes EV capital of India with 10 per cent sales share: Manish Sisodia

Delhi has emerged as the 'EV Capital of India' within 18 months of the launch of Delhi Electric Vehicles Policy-2020, claims Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia. He said that the share of electric vehicle sales in the national has increased from 1.2 per cent in 2019-20 to 10 per cent in February 2022. Sisodia attributed this sales growth of electric vehicles to the Delhi EV Policy, which is considered as the most comprehensive policy for electric vehicles, which focuses on both demand generation and infrastructure ecosystem development as well.

Sisodia on Saturday said that Delhi has become the first state in India to cross the 10 per cent mark in terms of EV sales, which is more than the share of electric vehicles in many developed countries like the UK, France and Singapore.

"With the increasing share of EVs, 20,000 new jobs will be created in the next five years in electric vehicles sales, repair and maintenance, operation and maintenance of charging stations," Sisodia said while presenting the Delhi Budget for FY2022-23.

"In concurrence with the Supreme Court, we will issue 5,000 e-auto permits every year for the next five years and this will create 25,000 new jobs," he also added.

The Delhi EV policy was introduced back in August 2020. It aims at increasing the EV share in total vehicle sales to 25 per cent by 2024. During announcing the launch of the Delhi EV policy, the Delhi government said that through this, it aims to reduce the alarming air pollution level in the national capital. In January 2022, Delhi had notified an aggregator's policy under which ride-hailing aggregators and delivery services will have to mandatorily adopt EVs while buying new vehicles. The policy mandates that the ride-hailing aggregators and delivery service providers have to ensure that 50 per cent of all new two-wheelers and 25 per cent of all new four-wheelers are electric by March 2023.