Delhi government launches forum for successful implementation of EV policy

The Delhi government on Friday launched a forum to engage with stakeholders for the successful implementation of its recently launched electric vehicles policy.

The city government had notified its electric vehicles (EV) policy in August this year, aiming at having an electric vehicle market share of 25 per cent across all new vehicle sales in Delhi by 2024, according to an official statement.

The primary objective of the Delhi Electric Vehicles Policy, 2020 is to accelerate the pace of EV adoption across vehicle segments, especially in the mass category of two-wheelers, public/shared transport vehicles and goods carriers.

“Realising the vision of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to make Delhi the ‘EV capital of India’ requires participation of all stakeholders, including original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), fleet operators, charging station energy operators and others," Jasmine Shah, vice chairperson, Dialogue and Development Commission (DDC) of the Delhi government said.

The DDC will host the Delhi EV Forum with the support of independent think tank, RMI India, working in the field of clean energy and mobility.

The first meeting of the forum will be held virtually on December 18 to discuss and understand challenges towards deployment of electric vehicles and charging infrastructure, and identify potential solutions and gain commitments from private sector players to help achieve the e-vehicle and charging infrastructure targets defined in the policy, Shah said.

"The Delhi EV Forum will be the first such forum in India for continuous dialogue and engagement of stakeholders in the implementation of EV policy.

“Since the launch of Delhi's electric vehicles policy, we have received enthusiastic response from several stakeholders. Their concerns and suggestions are important and discussing them transparently at the Delhi EV Forum is the best way to chart a joint roadmap for the successful implementation of the EV policy," Shah said.

The Delhi EV Forum will also provide a platform for continuous engagement with a broad set of stakeholders to implement the Delhi EV policy through a series of quarterly meetings, he said.

Considering that the EV ecosystem is relatively new and still in the initial stages of development, consultations and stakeholder discussions are expected to prove crucial in the early stages of implementation of the policy, the official said.

Think-tanks, civil society organisations (CSOs), OEMs, Charging Infrastructure Providers, fleet-aggregators, first and last-mile service providers, and government agencies would all be invited to participate in these workshops, he added.

“The government's decision to create an EV Forum will go a long way in ensuring that the policy achieves its targets by troubleshooting implementation barriers faced by early adopters of electric vehicles," Akshima Ghate of RMI India said.

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