Delhi EV policy proposal: 20% parking space to be reserved for EVs

New buildings with at least 20 car parking spaces will be issued occupancy certificates (OCs) only if they have at least four EV charging spaces

Delhi’s Electric Vehicle (EV) Policy 2.0, which is likely to be announced next month, proposed to mandate EV charging points for at least 20% of the parking space in all new buildings, officials aware of the matter said. For older buildings, 5% of the total parking space is to facilitate charging infrastructure for EVs, officials said.

The old EV policy of Delhi expired in August 2023, following which it was extended till 2025. (Representative photo/HT Archive)

According to the proposal, a copy of which was accessed by HT, new buildings with at least 20 car parking spaces will be issued occupancy certificates (OCs) only if they have at least four (20%) EV charging spaces. Similarly, officials said, a large building having 100 parking spaces will have at least 20 spaces with an EV charging facility, but the rule does not apply to buildings having fewer than 20 parking spaces.

Officials said that they will include the mandates in the building bylaws of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC).

“We have increased the EV charging station targets by a lot as it has been seen that lack of charging infrastructure has been a hindrance in EV adoption, especially among private vehicle owners. With better technology, we are focusing on having fast chargers wherever possible,” a transport department official said.

The policy proposal, however, did not specify what type of building the mandate applies to, whether it is residential or commercial or all.

The old EV policy of Delhi expired in August 2023, following which it was extended till 2025. Transport minister Pankaj Singh previously said that the new EV policy was ready and will be rolled out in April. To be sure, the policy will have to be approved by the Delhi cabinet and then by the LG before it can be enforced.

The transport department official said that all public parking spaces will also have a minimum level of prescribed charging infrastructure, although the details were yet to be finalised.

To improve charging infrastructure, the transport department will also add fast charging stations all along Ring Road and Outer Ring Road, as well as under flyovers, the proposal said.

A second official, not wishing to be named, said: “We want to develop these two stretches as EV-ready roads, where spots are being identified for EV charger setup. Deploying kerbside charging points and points under flyover where free space is available are also options that will be checked. We are also introducing subsidies to ensure that setting up of charging points is a viable business option.”

According to the proposal, Delhi aims to have 13,200 public charging stations by 2030 with a facility available within every five kilometres. The previous EV policy had also mandated setting up of 48,000 charging points in Delhi by 2026, of which only around 4,800 (10%) have been set up so far, even while accounting for the fact that one charging station can have multiple charging points.

The policy proposes a subsidy of ₹15-30 lakh for setting up larger public EV charging stations. For setting up semi-public chargers, a subsidy of ₹2,500 is proposed per charging point for AC chargers for the first 15,000 applicants and ₹20,000 for DC chargers for the first 2,000 applicants, officials said.

Officials said that policy will also look at imposing penalties for parking of non-EVs in parking spaces reserved for EVs in public lots. Similar to buildings, mandates will also be introduced to ensure a minimum number of charging points in public parking lots as well.

HT previously reported that the new policy also proposes to mandate every third or subsequent car private owners intend to purchase be electric. This will also apply to registrations at the same residential address. For two-wheelers, the policy proposes that no petrol/diesel/CNG two-wheeler registration will be allowed from August 2026. For the three-wheeler segment, it proposed to mandatorily replace all CNG autorickshaws older than 10 years or retrofit them during the policy period.