NEW DELHI: The National Capital stands fifth in the list of states in buying electric vehicles, but leads the list in terms of e-vehicles per person, a Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) report revealed.
The report, released last week, shows that residents of Delhi have bought 19,329 e-vehicles so far, which translates to one vehicle for every 874 residents. The population of the city was 1.69 crore, according to 2011 census. Experts advised words of caution.
“The trend is a positive one but I personally feel it has reached this stage too late. The damage has already been done. We should have taken these steps long ago,” Polash Mukherjee, one of the authors of the report and a programme manager at the CSE said.
In terms of pan-India statistics, Maharashtra with 33,472 e-vehicles leads the list and is followed by Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh with 31,230 and 25,727 e-vehicles respectively. However, the per person e-vehicle count is 3,356, 2,403 and 7,767 for Maharashtra, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh respectively.
In terms of per person e-vehicles, the top performing states are Delhi, Haryana and Gujarat, while the worst performing states are Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and TN.
According to the report, since the advent of e-vehicles, 3.55 crore litres of fuel has been saved with a daily fuel saving of 52,000 litres been recorded. In terms of reduction of carbon dioxide, there has been a reduction of 6.98 crore kilograms of the pollutant in the atmosphere while the use of e-vehicles has resulted in the reduction of the greenhouse gas by 1.29 lakh kilograms.
“The only solution to the problem of pollution, especially in places like Delhi, is the use of zero-polluting vehicles like electric ones. We have already reached thresholds of pollution and more rebates and discounts should be given to the people to use e-vehicles,” Mukherjee said and added that the increase in the number of charging points is the first step that the government needs to take.