The number of electric vehicles (EVs) registered in India has seen a massive eight-times jump between 2018 and 2022, official data analysed by News18 shows. As of this month, Uttar Pradesh is home to the highest number of registered EVs. However, the numbers suggest that Assam and Tripura top the charts for the highest proportion of EVs when compared to all vehicles.
As per the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), in 2022, at least 10.24 lakh e-vehicles were registered in the country, up from 1.30 lakh in 2018. Further, this year, up to August, this number has already reached 8.47 lakh. When compared to 2021, electric vehicles registered in 2022 have increased by about three times, while this year, even though there are four months left, the numbers have already jumped 2.5 times.
The growth of EVs in India has been tremendous in the last 10 years – a massive 53 times. At the end of 2013, the country had just 53,387 registered EVs. By July 2023, it has reached more than 28.30 lakh. The number of non-EVs has grown by about three times – from 14.27 crore to 34.55 crore.
Assam, Tripura Hold Top Spot for Highest Proportion of EVs
While more than 28 lakh EVs in India sounds like a good number, it is not even 1% when seen in proportion to non-EVs that stood at massive 34.55 crore. Interestingly, against India’s average, Assam and Tripura offer a totally different picture.
In both states, more than 2% of the total vehicles are electric vehicles. However, in the rest of the north-eastern states – Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim – the situation is not so good and is like most of the major states across India. These eight states have a total of 1,36,832 EVs, about 5% of total electric vehicles in India.
A Dim Picture
While both the growth and number of electric vehicles in India sound impressive, if seen in the light of regular vehicles in India, EVs have a long journey ahead. In only seven states or Union Territories do the EVs hold more than 1% of total registered vehicles. Apart from Assam and Tripura, the other states are Delhi, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Goa. Across India, the share of electric vehicles in total registered vehicles stood at 0.81% and only 11 states have managed to surpass this share.
Uttar Pradesh Tops the Charts With Highest EV Count
Out of the 28,30,565 electric vehicles in India as of August 2023, Uttar Pradesh has more than 5.74 lakh, MoRTH said. According to VAHAN’s digitised vehicle records, after Uttar Pradesh, it is Maharashtra with more than 3 lakh EVs.
Karnataka and Delhi each capture the next two spots with more than 2 lakh EVs registered. Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Bihar each have more than 1.5 lakh registered EVs, MoRTH data shows. The data analysed by News18 shows that at least 16 states have more than 50,000 EVs and of these, nine are those where the numbers are above 1 lakh.
Two-Wheelers Most Preferred EVs
Out of the total EVs registered since 2018, two-wheelers are the preferred electric vehicle in India with more than 13.53 lakh units registered. So far this year, around 4.90 lakh electric two-wheelers were registered. Last year, this number was at 6.31 lakh.
Next in line are three-wheelers. Between 2018 and August 2023, 11.42 lakh three-wheelers were registered, including 3.50 lakh in 2022 and 3 lakh this year up to August. While there is a lot of discussion on e-public vehicles, just 4,780 units have been registered since 2018, and of these, around 3,150 were enrolled collectively during 2021 and 2022. This year, so far, 985 e-public vehicles have been registered.
Four-wheeler electric vehicles are also gaining popularity in India with little over 90,000 units registered in last five-and-a-half years since 2018. The demand of electric four-wheelers this year surpassed all records, with more than 40,186 units registered up to August. Last year, 33,205 units were registered.
It is also interesting to note that the demand for electric goods vehicles is also increasing and out of the 4,010 electric goods vehicles registered since 2018, 1,512 were this year alone, highest since 2018.
Steps to Promote EVs
To promote the use of EVs, MoRTH announced in April that All India Tourist Permit will be issued for battery-operated vehicles without payment of permit fee. Battery-operated transport vehicles have been granted exemption from the requirements of permit since 2018 and exemption from the payment of fees for the purpose of issue or renewal of registration certificate and assignment of new registration since 2021.
Comments
0 comment