Economic survey: EVs increase from 34,000 to 144k in 1 year in Delhi

The total number of electric vehicles (EVs) in the Capital has increased four times in the last year from around 34,000 to over 144,000, according to the Delhi government’s Economic Survey released on Friday. However, despite this increase, public EV charging points have only seen a marginal rise.
The 2023-24 budget allocated the highest share of around 21% to improving transport infrastructure in the city, with a high emphasis on the electrification of vehicles. Cabinet minister Atishi announced that Delhi now has the world’s third-largest e-bus fleet after Shenzhen in China and Santiago in Chile.
“Delhi has taken serious steps in increasing zero-emission e-buses in the city. While we are number three in the world now, the transport minister has already placed orders for thousands of more e-buses, ensuring that we may soon be the city with the largest e-bus fleet in the world,” said Atishi.
Presenting the Economic Survey, she added that presently Delhi has a fleet of 7,500 buses, of which 1,650 are electric. According to the Delhi government’s plan announced by the transport minister Kailash Gahlot earlier, the transport department is expected to have a fleet of 10,480 buses by 2025, 80% of which, or 8,280 buses, will be electric.
Last year, the Delhi government also introduced the Delhi EV policy 2.0 to encourage the rapid adoption of EVs in Delhi and establish a necessary charging infrastructure for electric vehicles at an accelerated pace — by implementing purchase incentives, scrapping incentives, interest subvention on loans, waiver of road tax and registration fees and establishment of a network of charging and swappable batteries stations. A software has also been launched for the disbursal of purchase incentives and scrapping incentives, along with measures to support the creation of jobs in driving, selling, financing, servicing and charging EVs.
According to the Survey, as of September 2023, 4,793 charging points and 318 battery-swapping stations were operational in Delhi. This was a marginal rise from last year when 3,734 charging points and 234 battery swapping stations were already established.
The Survey added that during 2022-23, 220 million women passengers travelled for free in Delhi Transport Corporation buses and 234.1 million in cluster buses, a total of around 450 million female journeys. Around 2.5 million commuters travelled on DTC buses per day, about 1.6 million on cluster buses, and 4.6 million commuters travelled on the Delhi Metro. During her assembly speech, Atishi added that around 8.7 million people use public transport daily in Delhi.
The Survey added that due to the lack of last-mile connectivity, proper integration, and socio-economic diversity, a large portion of the population is still not using public transport.
“As a result, growing uses of personal cars and two-wheelers has led to a tremendous decline in air quality and traffic safety. In many urban areas, congestion has increased, and Delhi is already among India’s largest producers of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Hence, promoting uses and improving efficiency and effectiveness of public transport is most desirable in Delhi,” it added.
The Survey also mentioned that the Delhi government has banned diesel vehicles over 10 years old and petrol vehicles over 15 years old, deregistering 6,259,214 vehicles till 2022-23, around 5.5 million of which were deregistered last year. However, to be sure, while around 6.2 million vehicles have been deregistered, these are not necessarily out of use.