The Andhra Pradesh government is set to come out with a comprehensive electric vehicle policy to encourage electric mobility in the State.
The State is set to host a meeting of electric vehicle, battery manufacturers, technology providers and public-sector departments to chart out a plan that will encourage usage of EVs. The meeting is also aimed at charting out a road map for the roll out of EVs.
As a part of this drive, the State Government and Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) have inked an agreement to invest ₹10,500 crores over the next five years to deploy about one lakh electric cars.
N Chandrababu Naidu, AP Chief Minister, has recently directed the energy department to prepare a comprehensive action plan to lease and use electric vehicles. He said to The Hindu Business Line, “All government departments should go in for e-vehicles which would later be extended to private sector as well. As a State which has been ranked No1 in Ease of Doing Business (EoDB), the encouragement of renewable energy and usage of EVs would augur well.”
Ajay Jain, Principal Secretary, Energy and Industries, said, if the one lakh vehicles are deployed, it will reduce the cost of leasing vehicles by ₹3,600 crores, with drop in fuel expenditure and monetary savings of ₹2,160 crore.
As per State’s assessment, while the usage of EVs works out to about ₹0.89 per km, it is estimated to be ₹4.40 per km for conventional vehicles, reported the Hindu Business Line.
