Electric Fleet for Commercial Use

The government think tank Niti Aayog is exploring the following options for transitioning to electric vehicles:

• Taxi aggregators to be required to convert 40 per cent of their fleet of cars to electric by April 2026.
• Taxi aggregators such as ola, uber would be required to convert their fleet as early as next year to achieve 2.5 per cent electrification by 2021, 5 per cent by 2022, 10 per cent by 2023 before hiking it to 40 per cent by April 2026.
• Further all new cars which would be sold for commercial use to be electric vehicle only from April 2026.
• Also, the Motorcycles and scooters sold for commercial purposes i.e for food delivery or for use by e-commerce companies will also need to be electric from April 2023.

The government is looking at the new policy to boost the adoption of electric vehicles as for bringing down the oil imports and curb pollution which would aid in fulfilling its commitment under the 2015 Paris climate deal.

Even though taxi players, like Ola, had previously tried to operate electric cars in the country, it met with little success due to the inadequate infrastructure and high costs.