In May 2021, Maharashtra made its ambition clear to become a global leader in EVs  by announcing a draft EV policy. True to their word, the government has approved this new policy, effective July 2021, which aims to ensure up to 10% of all new registered vehicles in Maharashtra are battery electric. The policy envisions retaining Maharashtra’s leadership in the automotive manufacturing sector in India and emerge as one of the leading manufacturing and investment hubs for the EV ecosystem globally.

Maharashtra aims to create a State EV Fund which will be used to promote EV adoption, including incentives for EVs and infrastructure. This will aggregate funds from different instruments like green tax and green cess.

Here’s how Maharashtra plans to become a global leader in EVs:

Charging infrastructure

Maharashtra aims to significantly ramp up charging stations across cities and state highways, as well as incentivize private owners to set them up.

At least one public charging stations in a 3×3 km grid or a minimum of 50 charging stations per million population, whichever is higher

Make 4 highways connecting Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune, Nashik fully electric with a pubic charging stations every 25 kms on both sides.

Of the total cost of fast charging stations as incentives. 50% for slow charging stations

Urban local bodies will be encouraged to provide property tax rebates to residential owners for installing private charging infrastructure within their premises.

All cities falling under the National Clean Air Programme will be urged to prepare charging infrastructure plans which can cater to the 2025 levels of EV penetration aimed at by this policy. NCAP cities will be encouraged to allocate funds from the 15th Finance Commission grant provided to address air pollution in these cities, to ramp up charging infrastructure.

Incentives for consumers

The state has launched attractive incentives to encourage consumers to buy EVs across all vehicle types.

Investing in the EV manufacturing sector

With the vision of becoming a global hub for EV manufacturing, Maharashtra has launched several schemes to attract investment in this space.

  • EV manufacturers can avail all the benefits under D+ category provided to mega projects irrespective of their location in the state
  • EV start-ups will be encouraged on priority basis under Maharashtra State Innovation Society
  • The state aims to attract at least one Gigafactory for the manufacturing of Advance Chemistry Cells (ACC) under the Production Linked Incentive scheme for ACC battery manufacturing
  • To build capacity across the EV sector, Maharashtra will amend existing courses and/or create new courses on electric vehicle ecosystem to be offered by the state Industrial Training Institutes. In partnership with interested OEMs and service providers, the state will develop skill enhancement centres for delivering vocational courses on the EV ecosystem. These will aim to train the ICE mechanics/workforce in repairing and servicing of EVs and charging stations

Creating an enabling environment to encourage EV sales:

  • Fast-track and ensure time bound registration of EVs, including EV fleets owned by aggregators, last mile delivery providers, logistics players, etc.
  • Green number plates for all EVs
  • Urban local bodies to provide lane and parking preferences to EVs, subject to local traffic conditions
  • New residential buildings will be mandated to have at least 20% of the total parking spaces as EV ready, of which 30% should be in common parking spaces or parking spaces unallotted to any individual residence owner
  • New residential projects to provide options of buying EV ready parking from 2022
  • Public parking spaces to convert 25% of total capacity to be EV ready by 2023
  • Commercial/institutional complexes to have 25% parking space for EVs
  • Government office complexes to convert 100% capacity to be EV ready
  • Free parking for EVs in all future public parking spaces