Kolkata: As most commercial vehicles above 15 years will be phased out by next year, the state expects a 50 per cent rise in the registration of e-vehicles. Currently, e-vehicles ownership is mostly restricted to private but with growing numbers of e-cabs and buses, the state expects to see a substantial rise.
In the current year till now, there are 1,692 electric four-wheeler vehicles (battery operated vehicles in the state) which is a massive jump from the figure of 807 recorded last year, as per the data provided for the state on Vahan Sewa portal.
A massive rise was also recorded in the number of electric three-wheelers from 1,774 in 2022 to 6,077 in the current year.
Not only this, the light goods vehicles listed under electric vehicles in the state have also grown from two in 2022 to 123 in 2023. In the financial year 2023-24 till now, the number of e-vehicles in the state stood at 13,128, as per the data provided by the Vahan Sewa portal.
Last financial year, the figure stood at 13,262 which was a substantial increase from 6,059 e-vehicles recorded in 2021-22. During this period the number of e-vehicles in the state dipped slightly considering the figure stood at 8,203 in the financial year 2020-2021.
“During the last six to seven months, mostly private vehicle owners have been switching to e-vehicles,” a senior official said. In mid 2022, the Transport department announced exemption of registration fees, motor vehicle and additional taxes for two and four-wheeled electric vehicles and all categories of CNG-operated vehicles which were registered between April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2024.
However, the cost of e-vehicles is almost double the cost of internal combustion engine vehicles, according to a source. Hence, many commercial operators are not very inclined towards switching to e-vehicles.
According to Rahul Chatterjee, private bus operator, a diesel bus costs minimum Rs 25 lakh while an e-bus costs minimum Rs 1 crore. “Unless the state helps us financially, it will be difficult for us to switch to e-buses,” he said, while adding that many bus operators have started replacing the buses which are going to attain 15 years with diesel buses as the cost of investment for e-bus is quite high.
But with the rapid shift to e-vehicles, questions on waste management have also arisen. According to officials, this is one of the reasons why the state is looking forward to establishing the registered vehicle scrapping facilities to ensure that the battery waste is dealt with safely and scrapping does not end up harming the environment. The first such facility is going to come up in Uluberia by the end of this year under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model.