Five states emerge as major e-vehicle sales hubs, says SMEV

India is positively heading towards mass-electric mobility and in line with attaining this goal, Gujarat, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra have emerged as the top five states in terms of e-vehicle sales.

A study was conducted by the Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV) of all electric 2 wheelers and 4 wheelers which were sold between 2016-2017 and are successfully running.

The study showed that 1926 e-vehicles were sold in Maharashtra, 2388 in Rajasthan, 2467 in UP, 2846 in West Bengal and 4330 in Gujrat, making it the top-most state in India, to bring maximum numbers of e-vehicles on road.

 

In addition, 25,000 e-vehicles were sold across India between 2016-17.

The study further highlighted that among the huge sales of e-vehicles, 92 percent were two-wheelers and only 8 percent were four-wheelers. However, Delhi, which initially used to top this list, now, surprisingly ranks 7th with only 1072 e-vehicles sold.

Commenting on the study, Sohinder Gill, Director-Corporate Affairs, SMEV said, "As far as other states are concerned, there is a dire need for them to go electric on an urgent basis. It's good to see so many people supporting this transition and adapting to electric vehicles to curb the alarming pollution levels and aiming to reduce emission levels of greenhouse gases. However, this is not enough for India and Delhi, being the national capital, unfortunately, lags in comparison to these states. Challenges such as delay in subsidies and weak infrastructure need to be addressed."

"State governments along with various industry bodies must work together and come out with the formulation of newer and greener policies for India to achieve the global emission norms, which is to make India a leader in the reduction of greenhouse gases and aim for lower pollution levels in all aspects. In next three years, we should come out with sound and comprehensive policy that also implemented seamlessly at least to 40 to 50 cities as a starter for long-term course for EV industry based on the learnings and pitfalls on the experiments conducted in these cities," said Gill.