The Gujarat Government, on Tuesday, announced the Gujarat Electric Vehicle Policy 2021 for adoption of electric vehicles and development of charging infrastructure with subsidies and capital incentives support over the next four years.

Announcing the policy, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said Gujarat would give a big push to EV adoption by providing subsidy for two-wheelers, three-wheelers and cars. As per the policy, EVs in the category of two-wheelers will be eligible for subsidy up to ₹20,000, three-wheelers will get subsidy of ₹50,000 and cars will be eligible for subsidy of up to ₹1.5 lakh. Also, the State government has exempted e-vehicles registered at Gujarat RTO from registration fee.

As per the State government’s calculations, Gujarat’s subsidy for EVs stands at ₹10,000 per kilowatt as against other States that provide maximum ₹5,000 per kilowatt. The subsidy amount will be directly credited to the bank accounts of the buyers. This will be in addition to the benefits announced by the Centre under Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and EV-2 scheme for electric vehicles.

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The subsidy and incentives will cost the State exchequer ₹870 crore over the next four years.

Four key objectives

Rupani stated that the policy push will result in increased adoption of EVs in the State, from a couple of thousand EVs on roads, currently.

"With the benefits of the subsidy and policy incentives, very soon we will see 200,000-250,000 EVs on Gujarat roads, that will include about 1.25 lakh two-wheelers, 75,000 3-wheelers and about 20,000 cars," he said, during the announcement in the State capital.

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The policy would focus on achieving four key objectives — development of ancillary industries in battery and other areas, encouraging start-ups and investors in the electric automotive mobility space, bringing down pollution from conventional fuels, increasing the number of EVs in the State and saving the environment.

Notably, the State government in its annual Budget for 2021-22 had announced ₹26 crore allocation to promote the use of EV. Earlier, a scheme of e-bike was launched for college students for up to 10,000 e-bikes.

“The new policy for EVs will help to save ₹5-crore worth of fuel consumption annually, and about 6 lakh tonnes of carbon emission. Just as Gujarat has emerged as the automobile hub in the country, it will also become an EV hub,” said Rupani.

Over 500 charging stations

The policy also looks to encourage investments for charging infrastructure development. The State government will provide capital incentive of up to ₹10 lakh or 25 per cent capital subsidy of the project cost for development of charging stations across the highways.

“The Government of India has identified 278 charging station locations in the State. We will invite applications for the additional 250 such stations from interested parties. This will take the total charging stations in the State to more than 500,” Saurabh Patel, State energy minister, said.

Highway hotels and petrol pumps, besides dedicated charging complexes, will be encouraged to participate in setting up such charging infrastructure.