Odisha enhances subsidy to make electric vehicles lucrative

BHUBANESWAR: Odisha government on Wednesday hiked incentive for all three categories of electric vehicles (EVs) to make the subsidy more lucrative for vehicle owners.A proposal to amend the Odisha Electric Vehicle Policy-2021 that provisioned the incentives for the policy period up to 2025 was approved by the state cabinet recently to enhance the subsidy.

As per the revised policy, two-wheeler owners replacing their bikes or scooter with EVs can now get a subsidy of Rs 5,000 per kilowatt hour (kwh) up to Rs 20,000 and four-wheeler owners will get Rs 10,000 per kwh upto Rs 1.5 lakh. Three-wheelers will get a flat Rs 30,000 subsidy.

In the pre-revision period, the state government provided a 15 per cent subsidy on purchase of EVs. For two-wheelers, the subsidy was up to a maximum of Rs 5,000. The cap on three-wheelers was Rs 10,000, and it was upto Rs 50,000 for four-wheelers.While Maharashtra has the highest Rs 2.5 lakh subsidy for four-wheelers and Rs 25,000 for two-wheelers, subsidy provisions made by Odisha now equals Gujarat, Assam, Bihar and West Bengal.  

Official sources said the government decided to enhance the subsidy as the previous slabs met with lukewarm response. The EV policy was launched in 2021 with an aim for adoption of 20 per cent electric vehicles by the end of 2025 as a measure of reduction in vehicular pollution.

“However, it is found that about 4.48 per cent of EVs have been registered by the end of 2022 which is not satisfactory in comparison to the policy objective. Hopefully, the enhanced subsidy package will attract vehicle owners,” said an officer of Transport department.

The state has 26.22 lakh registered vehicles, including 21.45 lakh two-wheelers, 1.84 lakh light motor vehicles and 80,480 three-wheelers. The government targets 20 per cent adoption of EVs in the next two years.    

Hybrid vehicles for top officials

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has given in-principle approval for procurement of hybrid models for official use. As per a notification of the Finance department, ministers, chief secretary and other officers in the rank of apex scale and equivalent are eligible to procure Toyota Innova, Tata Hexa and Mahindra XUV 500 with a price ceiling of Rs 25 lakh per vehicle and fuel efficiency of 9 km per litre. District judges, officers in the rank of principal secretary or secretary and equivalent are eligible for Maruti Ciaz and Honda City with maximum price range of Rs 15 lakh and mileage of 12 km per litre. Similarly, collectors and SPs can use Mahindra Scorpio, Hyundai Creta and Mahindra Marazzo costing within Rs 15 lakh and a mileage of at least 10 km per litre.