AHMEDABAD: The number of vehicles on the roads with green number plates has been increasing in the city. The state road transport department began issuing green registration number plates to the electric vehicles about two months ago.
The state has so far registered 1,390 electric vehicles in 2021, of which 321 were registered at the RTO Ahmedabad with number plates bearing GJ-01. In 2020, the number of electric vehicles registered in Ahmedabad was 388 while there were only 195 in 2019.
The state had 942 electric vehicles registered in 2020 and the number was only 498 in 2019. Officials said increasing petrol prices and the low cost of travel by electric vehicles had led to the increase in purchases.
The government decision to subsidize electric two wheelers for students and electric cars have led to the increase. Officials said that electric cars on a single charge go 300-odd km and the charging time is about 60 minutes.
An officer said that for a mid-segment car the running cost of an electric vehicle comes to Rs 1 per km, while it is Rs 9 for petrol, Rs 6 for diesel and Rs 2.5 per km on CNG.
The officer said that with increasing fuel price and the running costs even lower than CNG, people are opting for electric vehicles. The officer said that so far registration of electric cars has only been observed in Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Surat and Vadodara and the trend is yet to pick up in rural areas.
The officer said that if the city gets more charging stations, registrations can increased three or fourfold in Ahmedabad.
For the economy, the policy is a clear move towards achieving green recovery in the post-Covid era. This makes India one of the very few developing nations which have taken tangible measures towards sustainable development in the automobile industry. For an average Indian, this calls for some cost-benefit analysis before heading onto their vehicle’s 15thanniversary. The scrappage incentives can only result in a mild uptick in sales of EVs in the short run as ICE vehicles and alternative fuel vehicles retain their edge.