Govt and CESL sign MoUs for EV charging stns, interest subvention

New Delhi: The Delhi government on Wednesday signed an agreement with the CESL for providing 5 per cent interest subvention on loans for the purchase of electric rickshaws, autos, carts and light goods vehicles. This will be in addition to the purchase incentive of Rs 30,000 and scrapping incentives of up to Rs 7,500 provided under the Delhi EV Policy, the Transport department said in a statement.

Through this scheme, an electric auto and electric light commercial vehicle will be able to avail up to Rs 25,000 additional benefit, it said.

This interest subvention scheme will help not just individual buyers but also the fleet owners deploying vehicles for e-commerce, grocery or delivery industry, Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot said during the signing of the MoU with Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL).

Under this partnership, the CESL will empanel scheduled banks, non-banking financial institutions and micro-financing institutions to provide loans and an online portal will be launched for buyers to choose from the empanelled models of lithium-ion battery-operated electric three-wheelers.

"The empanelled financial institutions will provide loans with a minimum 80 per cent loan-to-value at interest rates of a maximum of 20 per cent (including the interest subvention) for a loan tenure which is in the best interest of the buyer of electric vehicles," the Delhi government said.

Meanwhile, the Transport Department also inked another MoU with the CESL, for setting up electric vehicle charging and battery-swapping stations at 14 locations in cluster bus depots of Delhi. Each of the 14 locations will have six charging points, of which three will be for two-wheelers and three-wheelers and three will be for four-wheelers. Once installed, their real-time location and status of availability will be seen on the One Delhi application. The DTC will pay CESL Rs 1.00 per kWh of energy dispensed per month and the contract is for 10 years.