MUMBAI: At least 10per cent of all new vehicle registrations will be electric cars, bikes and other e-vehicles by 2025, states the new draft electric vehicle (EV) policy 2021.
It now awaits a final nod from the state cabinet. The state government has also proposed that from April, all new government vehicles will be electric across major cities listed under the draft policy. There is a plan to convert 15per cent of the current fleet of 18,000 MSRTC buses to electric.
The state also intends to make four highways and Expressways fully ready for electric vehicles by 2025, including the under-construction Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway, the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, the Mumbai-Nashik highway and the Nashik-Pune highway.
Disclosing some of the salient features of the new draft policy at a webinar on electric vehicle mobility on Thursday, state transport commissioner Avinash Dhakne said: “By 2025, city-wise targets of charging stations are proposed as 1,500 for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, 500 for Pune, 150 for Nagpur, 100 for Nashik, and 75 for Aurangabad. Unless we have enough charging stations or charging points or battery swapping facilities, the new technology adoption will still remain a challenge. The new draft policy addresses these issues.”
The transport chief was speaking at a town hall webinar organised online by Climate Voices, a collective of three organisations named Purpose, Asar and Climate Trends, along with the Maharashtra Environment and Climate Change Department’s Majhi Vasundhara initiative. It was hosted by Waatavaran Foundation and WRI India Ross Centre for Sustainable Cities.
“We plan to have at least one gigafactory for the manufacturing of advanced lithium-ion batteries to be set up in Maharashtra,” said additional chief secretary (transport) Ashish Kumar Singh. “Today, the state’s share of the country’s electric vehicle registrations is around 12per cent (32,000) but the size is still not large enough to excite manufacturers. We are keen to take advantage of the schemes by the Government of India, and we will soon become a leading manufacturer of EVs too.”
The share of electric vehicles in new registrations across the state in 2025 is expected to be 10per cent for two-wheelers, 20per cent for three-wheelers, and 5per cent for four-wheelers.
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