NEW DELHI: Delhi appears poised to reach a major milestone in its journey towards becoming the country’s electric vehicle (EV) capital. The first six months of 2022 has seen a total 25,890 EVs being sold in the city, higher than the total number sold in any single year since 2018.
EVs accounted for 9.3% of all vehicles registered in the national capital this year till June 30, up from 5.6% recorded in the whole of 2021.
There were 25,814 EVs registered last year while the number was 23,222 in 2019 and 20,973 in 2018. In 2020, only 12,381 EVs were registered amid an overall dip in vehicle sales due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
In 2018, when nearly 21,000 EVs were sold in Delhi, electrics comprised 2.9% of all vehicles registered. The share of EVs went up to 3.6% in 2019 before dipping to 2.9% in 2020.
Plugged in: Over 140 e-vehicles registered daily this year
While the share of EVs in total vehicle sales has been 9.3% so far this year, the month of March saw the share surge to 12.6%. This year has witnessed an average of 143 EVs being registered every day, compared with around 71 EVs sold per day on average last year. With another half of 2022 still left, EV sale figures are expected to break all previous records.
On August 7, 2020, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had launched Delhi government’s ambitious EV policy with the aim of taking the share of electrics to 25% of all new vehicle registrations by 2024. In the month of August 2020, 739 EVs were registered in Delhi and from September 2020 till date, 56,585 EVs have been sold in the city — 36.4% of the total 1,55,214 EVs registered in Delhi till date.
“Initially, the focus was on electric four-wheelers but, of late, the adoption of electric two-wheelers is being promoted in a bigger way because these comprise the bulk of vehicles on Delhi’s roads. If we can convert these to electric, it will help in combating air pollution in a huge way,” an official said. “The reason that the sale of EVs have been rising since last year is because the EV policy is now firmly in place and all the incentives that were promised have been rolled out,” he said.
Five years ago, almost every EV sold in Delhi (96.7%) was an e-rickshaw or an e-cart and the share of these vehicles in overall EV sales was almost similar in 2019 – 93.4%. While the share dipped somewhat in 2020 (83%), when the EV policy was launched, the number decreased to 57.9% last year, and this year, only one out of four EVs being sold is an e-rickshaw or an e-cart.
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