HYDERABAD: Even though prices of petrol and diesel continue to rise, the city, it appears, is not ready for e-vehicles.This is evident, as based on the meagre number of e-vehicles in the city, many still do not prefer buying electric vehicles even though they come with multiple subsidies, apart from reducing burden of pollution on the environment.
As per Regional Transport Authority, there are only around 9,303 electric vehicles currently plying in Telangana. Out of these, 5,573 are e-cars, 3,690 are electric two-wheelers and 40 are RTC passenger vehicles. Speaking at the Electric Vehicle Summit 2019 held at a star hotel here on Wednesday, Debmalya Banerjee, regional director, Indian Chamber of Commerce, said, “Along with charging infrastructure, awareness should also be created. Most importantly, commercial vehicles and passenger vehicles need to be converted.”
N Janaiah, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, TSREDCO said, “Although these e-vehicles are provided with benefits like road tax exemption, no need for registration and income tax exemption, there are issues such as battery storage mechanism and battery replacement that need to be addressed.” Moreover, the 40 battery charging stations at different metro stations across the city are out of bounds for e-vehicle users as neither the instructions for usage, nor the price per unit charge has been decided by the government yet.