Maharashtra aims 10% electrification of vehicle fleet with ₹930 cr EV policy

Maharashtra government on Tuesday has announced its revised EV policy worth ₹930 crore. Under the newly announced electric vehicle policy, the Maharashtra government aims to electrify 10% of the new vehicle fleet by 2025. Also, public transport and last-mile delivery vehicles will see 25% electrification under this policy. This will be done in the five targeted urban agglomerations in the state.

The revised Ev policy will be valid till 31st March 2025. The state government aims to boost the demand for electric vehicles and improve supply as well through incentives. The state government hopes incentivising the production will encourage the automakers to focus on EV manufacturing. Also, increased subsidies will encourage the demand from buyers.

The state government aims at least 10% of two-wheelers, 20% of three-wheelers and 5% of four-wheelers to be electric vehicles by 2025. The policy will subsidise the first 100,000 electric two-wheelers. The buyers of these 100,000 e-2Ws will be eligible to receive an incentive of ₹5,000 per kWh of battery capacity up to ₹10,000. The maximum threshold of the incentives has been increased from ₹5,000.

The state is also offering an early bird incentive of up to ₹15,000 for electric two-wheelers with a 3 kWh battery pack. However, these e-2Ws have to be purchased before 31 December 2021. This means buyers will be eligible to receive a total benefit of ₹25,000 for the electric two-wheelers if purchased this year and if it comes with a 3 kWh battery pack.

Maharashtra government also claims that the revised EV policy will accelerate the adoption of BEVs in the state. The policy proposes converting 15% of Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation's (MSRTC) bus fleet to electric. Also, it aims to make the state the top BEV producer in India, in terms of annual production capacity.

Besides promoting electric vehicle production and sales, the policy also emphasises the requirement of batteries for EVs. It aims to set up at least one Gigafactory for manufacturing advanced chemistry cell batteries. It will also allocate money for promoting research and development, innovation and skill development in the state's electric vehicle ecosystem.

The revised Maharashtra EV policy comes just a month after the Gujarat government introduced its own EV policy in June 2021. The Gujarat EV policy aims to cover 1.1 lakh electric two-wheelers, 70,000 electric three-wheelers and 20,000 electric four-wheelers by 2025.