Telangana: Electric vehicle sales in top gear, record 23 per cent rise in 2020 than last year
According to data available with the regional transport authority (RTA), over 11,000 electric and battery-operated vehicles are plying in Telangana as on August 6. This includes over 6,000 electric cars and 4,000 electric two-wheelers
HYDERABAD: In what can be seen as a move towards reducing the carbon footprint, sales of electric vehicles have shot up by 23 per cent in the first eight months of 2020 compared to the same period in the previous year.
According to data available with the regional transport authority (RTA), over 11,000 electric and battery-operated vehicles are plying in Telangana as on August 6. This includes over 6,000 electric cars and 4,000 electric two-wheelers. The corresponding number of electric vehicles plying in the state in July 2019 was 9,303 which included 5,573 electric cars, 3,690 electric two-wheelers and 40 RTC passenger vehicles. Industry experts attribute the rise in purchase of e-vehicles to factors such as reduction in goods and services tax (GST) as well as better affordability due to low costs of ownership.
“One of the major factors could be the reduction of GST rates on electric vehicles from 12 per cent to 5 per cent in April last year. Subsidies for faster adoption of electric vehicles and total cost of ownership are some of the key factors that might be encouraging people to choose electric vehicles over diesel or petrol variants,” said Biju Mathews, chief executive officer, ETO Motors. “We believe that the increase in sales of electric vehicles will play a major role in improving the air quality, especially in metro cities like Hyderabad,” Mathews said. Experts also said that the recent decision of the state government to encourage and promote the usage of electric vehicles will push more people to choose them in the near future. The government approved the new Telangana State Electric Vehicle and Energy Storage Solution Policy and also decided to encourage production of electric vehicles in the state through various incentives to both prospective owners and manufacturers.
“There is definitely an increase in the number of electric vehicles plying on roads when compared to last year. Although this could be a normal growth, we have to study the reasons behind it to understand the rise in numbers,” said joint transport commissioner, C Ramesh. Officials were confident that incentives such as 100 per cent exemption of road tax and registration fee will also encourage more people to choose electric vehicles.
Source: TNN
