New Delhi: In a push for India’s electric vehicle (EV) mobility playbook, union power and new and renewable energy minister Raj Kumar Singh has written to all central government ministers and state chief ministers to convert their official vehicle fleet to electric cars.
This assumes significance given the large fleet of official vehicles used by central ministries and departments, and the state governments. Also, this comes in the run-up to United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as COP-26, to be held in Glasgow, and may help expedite India’s push for green mobility, with the EV prices expected to reach price parity with internal combustion engine vehicles before 2025.
“As part of its efforts to promote Electric Vehicles in the country, the Union Minister of Power and New & Renewable Energy has written to all the Union Ministers including the Minister of States (Independent Charge) and Chief Ministers of all the States/UTs to join the Government of India’s initiative on transformative mobility and advice their respective Ministries/Departments to convert their fleet of official vehicles from present Internal Combustion Engine (ICE)/Petrol/Diesel Vehicles to Electric Vehicles for all official purposes,” the union power ministry said in a statement on Friday.
As part of the strategy to popularise green mobility in the country, a total of 1,590 electric cars have already been deployed in 160 central and state governments across 49 cities. There is also a growing traction for India’s playbook for developing a battery storage ecosystem that involves setting up 50-gigawatt hour (GWh) manufacturing capacity for advance chemistry cell batteries by attracting investments totaling ₹45,000 crore.
This focus for government’s vehicle fleet also comes at a time when climate change is a clear and present danger as articulated by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report which stated that extreme weather events will impact lives, livelihoods and businesses in India and South Asia, and called for immediate steps to mitigate climate change.
“Such an action is expected to set an example for the general public and encourage them to switch over to E-Mobility. The initiative is part of ongoing GO ELECTRIC CAMPAIGN launched by Government of India to promote Electric Vehicles (EVs) to meet multiple objectives – attaining goal of reduction in emission, energy security, energy efficiency etc,” the statement said.
State-run Energy Efficiency Services Ltd’s (EESL) has been allotted the demand aggregation of electric three-wheeler and electric bus component under the ₹10,000 crore Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (Fame) scheme of the government. Its subsidiary Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL) aims to have 200,000 two-wheeled EVs and 300,000 three-wheeled EVs across India.
Fame is designed to support the electrification of public and shared transport and help create charging infrastructure. The scheme is an important part of the government’s strategy to reduce vehicular emissions and dependence on fossil fuel. The Centre has also increased the incentive for electric two-wheelers to ₹15,000 per KWh under Fame. Money allocated under Fame-2 is to be spent to subsidize 500,000 electric three-wheelers, 1 million electric two-wheelers, 55,000 electric passenger vehicles and 7,090 electric buses.
Source: livemint.com
