Everyone In This State Will Get Rs 1.5 Lakh For Buying Electric Cars; Only EVs For Govt Departments

The Maharashtra government will roll out its Electric Vehicle (EV) Policy 2021 from January onwards, instead of April 2022.

Govt Adoption

As per the policy, only EVs would be bought or rented by government departments, urban local bodies and municipal corporations.

Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray tweeted that the policy will be implemented earlier than planned in keeping with the state’s commitment towards “clean mobility and encouraging citizens for climate mitigation, adaptation and resilience actions”.

Discount Deadline Extension

The state government has extended its early bird benefit scheme for select EV buyers till March 31, 2022.

This is a 3 month extension from the last date of December 31, 2021.

The benefits go to only those buying either Tata’s Nexon EV or Tigor EV.

The policy rewards a basic incentive of Rs 5,000 per kWh of the vehicle battery capacity, with maximum incentive capped at Rs 1.50 lakh.

Early bird incentives can be availed on purchase made before December 31, which is now extended to March 31, 2022.

How It Works

Buyers of the qualifying EV variant get Rs 2.5 lakh off, i.e. Rs 1.5 lakh as subsidy and Rs 1 lakh for early bird incentive.

This takes down the vehicle’s price by a huge margin. 

The maximum incentive for two-wheelers and three-wheelers is capped at Rs 10,000 and Rs 30,000, respectively.

Policy Purpose

The policy was introduced in July 2021 to promote the adoption of sustainable and clean mobility solutions in the state.

It aims to make Maharashtra the leader in adoption of EVs in the country.

It also intends to consolidate the state’s leadership in automotive manufacturing in India and transform into a leading investment hub for the EV ecosystem globally.

A key target is the “establishment of at least one gigafactory for manufacturing of ACC batteries and promoting R&D, innovation, and skill development across the EV ecosystem in the state,” said an official.

Policy Goals

Apart from the government’s adoption, the policy also targets EVs to achieve 10% of new vehicle registrations by 2025.

The policy has several other targets in place that it seeks to accomplish in Maharashtra by 2025. 

Here’s some of them:

• Achieving 25% electrification of public transport and last-mile delivery in five targeted urban areas by 2025
• Converting 15% of the transport board’s existing bus fleet to electric by 2025
• Converting at least 25% of the urban fleet operated by fleet aggregators/operators to electric by 2025