Telangana unveils its own EV policy

The race to bring about environment-friendly electric mobility in India is on. Last year, the nascent electric vehicle industry in India was given a boost when the government’s premiere think-tank – NITI Aayog – released a draft policy suggesting that adopting electric mobility would provide manifold benefits. In the absence of an EV policy from the Central government, individual states across the nation have taken it upon themselves to draft their own EV-friendly policies.

Telangana has hopped onto the rising electric vehicle bandwagon and has become the fourth state in the country to announce its own EV policy. The newly formed state is ready to roll out a range of benefits to push forward our relatively nascent EV infrastructure. These many benefits include incentives for vehicle manufacturers and sops for EV charging infrastructure providers.

Karnataka was the first state to declare its own EV policy. To facilitate the adoption of electrification, the state had announced that it would incentivise EV production and established a target of Rs 31,000 crore in investments. The state also said it would create a special purpose vehicle by involving its civic agencies and state transport; as well as get its energy companies and renewable energy and industries boards to help create the state's own charging infrastructure.

Andhra Pradesh – which of late has been attracting considerable investment from India Auto Inc – was the second Indian state to announce its adoption of an EV policy.

Maharashtra was the latest state before Telangana to announce its policy, earlier this month. The state also looks to facilitate the complete ecosystem to adopt and address the EV-charging concerns.