Maharashtra unveils revised policy for electronic vehicles

The Maharashtra government announced its revised electronic vehicle (EV) policy on Tuesday. It has proposed changes in the development control rules (DCR) to promote the setting up of charging stations at parking lots of housing societies and corporate parks.

“We want to install charging stations to be set up at parking lots of housing societies, building premises, corporate parks and thus proposed changes in DCR, which is part of our policy. People would like to have charging stations close to their homes which will promote the use of electric vehicles in the state,” said Aaditya Thackeray, state environment and climate change minister while revealing the policy that was cleared by the state cabinet last week.

“Urban local bodies will be encouraged to provide property tax rebates to residential owners for installing private charging infrastructure within their premises. Details will be announced soon,” states the Maharashtra State Electric Vehicle Policy 2021.

“The developer is likely to be allowed floor space index (FSI) against the space used for charging stations so that they won’t have to face financial losses,” said an official, wishing not to be named.

Thackeray said charging won’t be a problem because solutions are bound to come when demand for the electronic vehicle will increase. “The charging technology is constantly changing. With the new technology in place, vehicles can be charged with normal sockets and with the desired speed. Hence, it would be better if private charging stations are promoted. Apart from them, charging stations at government and corporation places will remain available… Bus depots can also be used for the same,” the environment minister said.

In its revised policy, the state intends to set up 1,500 charging stations in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), 500 in Pune, 150 in Nagpur, 100 in Nashik, 75 in Aurangabad, 30 in Amravati and 20 in Solapur city. It plans to set up at least one public charging station in a 3 km x 3 km grid or a minimum of 50 charging stations per million population, whichever is higher, said Ashish Kumar Singh, additional chief secretary, transport department.

By 2025, the state also intends to provide full-scale infrastructure for electric vehicles on four major highways — Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway, Mumbai-Pune Express Highway, Mumbai-Nashik, and Nashik-Pune highway, he added.

The revised policy will remain valid till March 31, 2025.

The state government aims to boost the demand for electric vehicles and improve supply as well through incentives. The state government believes that incentives for automobile companies and subsidies for the buyers will help in encouraging its manufacturing and increase demand among the buyers.

The new policy aims to electrify 10% of all vehicles by 2025. Also, public transport and last-mile delivery vehicles will see 25% electrification under this policy. Starting from April 2022, all new government vehicles be it owned or leased operating within the major cities will be only electric, stated the policy.

It also intends to incentivise purchase of 100,000 electric two-wheelers, 15,000 e-autos, 10,000 cars, 20,000 goods carriers (both three and four-wheeler) and 1,000 e-buses. Maximum incentive against two-wheelers would be ₹10,000, three-wheelers ₹30, 000, three-wheeler (goods carrier) ₹30,000, four-wheelers ₹1.5 lakh, four-wheelers (goods carrier) ₹1 lakh and e-buses ₹20 lakh.

All electric vehicles will be exempted from road tax and registration charges till 2025. Scraping of electric vehicles has also been incentivized by the state. For two-wheeler ₹7,000, three-wheeler ₹15,000 and for four-wheeler ₹25,000 will be given by the state government, stated the additional chief secretary.

Maharashtra was one of the first states to unveil its electric vehicle policy in February 2018. However, it could not be implemented effectively due to the subsequent changes made by various central government departments.

Apart from promoting electric vehicle production and sales, the policy also emphasises the requirement of batteries for electric vehicles. It intends to set up at least one gigafactory for manufacturing advanced chemistry cell batteries. It will also allocate money for promoting research and development, innovation and skill development in the state’s electric vehicle ecosystem.