In A Big EV Push, Finance Ministry Directs All Govt Bodies To Prefer Electric Vehicles For Official Use

Government¡¯s continued efforts to increase the electric vehicle (EV) adoption in the country has finally reached its own home. Soon after the Power Ministry issued its final guidelines and standards for EV charging infrastructure, making it easier for individuals and organisations to set up an EV charging infrastructure, the Finance Ministry has now given a boost to the scenario by asking all the government departments to look at EVs as the first priority for cars for officials in the capital region, as per a recent TOI report.

The ministry has reportedly asked all the departments to switch to greener alternatives for transportation. For the same, the departments will now have to give priority to EVs over conventional IC engine cars while hiring cars for officials. The potential impact of this can be judged from the fact that the leases for the cars are to be renewed in the coming months.

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If everything goes as planned, the utilisation of EVs by the departments can make a huge difference, even passively, as this can correspondingly lead to the setting up of charging infrastructure as well as quality EV products to match the standards set by the government. Monetarily, this would also cut down on the expenditure by the departments on the fuel requirements.

This is not the first time that the government is trying to incorporate EVs into its fleet though. Back in September 2017, a similar attempt was made to lease 10,000 EVs from public sector Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL). EESL was supposed to procure the fleet from Tata Motors Ltd and Mahindra Mobility in two phases - 500 units in November 2017 and the remaining 9,500 EVs in the next phase. The deal never reached the second phase though, as the government officials discouraged the proceedings citing limited range and average performance of the EVs.

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Currently, efforts to bring in the EV culture in India are underway from both the government as well as the private players alike. While the private firms are lining up EVs and charging stations for the country, the government is slowly but steadily finding its way to the right guidelines for their use. Recently, Heavy Industries minister Anant Geete had announced that public sector electric equipment maker Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) will soon start making lithium ion batteries within the country, in a joint venture with a US-based firm. Once the process starts, India¡¯s dependence on countries like China for the batteries for EVs will reduce, eventually bringing down the price of EVs as well.