TN focuses on electrification of commercial vehicles with incentives

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government seeking to provide the initial impetus for driving EV adoption in the State by incentivising commercial vehicles from Rs 30,000 to Rs 10 lakh for e-two wheelers and e-buses. All the EVs are exempted from paying registration charges until 2025.

"Electrification of commercial vehicles is economically viable and provides higher benefits due to higher utilisation rates, and faster payback periods vis-à-vis private vehicles and as it services the public,” the new EV policy released by the State government said.

The policy said that the government should undertake efforts to collaborate with demand aggregators such as Convergence Energy Services Limited (a subsidiary of Energy Efficiency Services Limited) to conduct a demand assessment study and aggregate demand for EVs to enable cost discovery and reduce procurement costs. "At the onset, aggregation of demand from government departments and public sector units in EV pilot cities shall be prioritised," it said.

Sivasubramaniam Jayaraman of ITDP-India said that the new policy released by the Tamil Nadu government addressed the important issue of creating charging infrastructure which was missed in the earlier policy. He said that people would adopt to e-vehicle only if the charging infrastructure is available. "There is a need to develop a roadmap for the transition to e-vehicles. The government should also create awareness among the public on what sort of incentives are available for purchasing EVs," he said.

To promote electrification of the transport vehicles, the policy said that the State should undertake measures to electrify shared transport vehicles in a gradual manner beginning from the EV cities.

"E-commerce and other e-aggregator companies in Tamil Nadu shall be encouraged to transition their vehicles to EVs gradually. Presently, the registration of EVs is limited to private vehicles. The Home (Transport) Department shall issue guidelines and undertake capacity building of RTOs to enable registration of commercial Electric Vehicles, including EV-2 wheelers for commercial use. The State is in the process of formulating and issuing guidelines for exempting permits for e-Autos operating in the State. The list of approved e-autos will be notified by the Home (Transport) Department," it said.

For all two and three-wheelers, private cars, taxis and auto-rickshaws, the government is offering 100% road tax, registration charges and permit fee (for commercial vehicles) exemption till 2025. The State government will electrify 30% of State Transport undertaking-operated buses by 2030 and also develop bus charging infrastructure through budgetary allocations.