Nagpur Gets Electric Taxis - MH Waives Off Tax On EVs!

Published May 27, 2017
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Ola has partnered with Mahindra and a few other OEMs and has inducted EVs in their fleet. More importantly, the Maharashtra CM announced a waiver on taxes and registration charges for EVs in the state.

The next time you book a cab through the app, chances are you won't hear the car coming. The Mahindra e2o Plus is now a part of the Ola Cabs fleet in Nagpur, among other electric vehicles sourced from TVS, BYD, Kinetic and Tata Motors. Ola's total EV fleet strength stands at 200 vehicles, that include 100 of Mahindra's quirky electric hatch.

Remember the Government's plan of being a 100% EV nation by 2030? Well, this is the first step towards that. Simply because, for the first time in a long while, there's talk about developing the EV ecosystem and not a willy-nilly addition of electric cars into the fleet. Ola has invested upwards of Rs 50 crore to install 50 charging stations across "four strategic locations" in Nagpur.

Maharashtra's chief minister, Devendra Fadnavis and the Minister for Road Transport, Highway and Shipping, Nitin Gadkari flagged off the initiative. The CM voiced his support for electric vehicles, "In support of this initiative, we have waived off VAT, road tax, and registration for all electric vehicles in the state, and we look forward to building Maharashtra as a model state for others to emulate in the future," he said.

This comes as a huge sigh of relief for Maharashtra-based Mahindra, which finally gets some help from the government. Till date, we've all heard multiple talks on promoting adoption of EVs, but very little tangible incentives from the centre or the state to do so. A cut in taxes and registration means that Mahindra's electric cars will become one notch more affordable.

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Gadkari hailed the homegrown automaker and the app-based cab aggregator for taking the initiative and subsequently paving the way for the others. "There is an urgent need to re-think and revisit transport infrastructure and fuel dependency, not just in India, but globally. Large scale adoption of electric vehicles can bring the monumental change that we urgently need, and in this endeavour, we launched the 100% EV nation by 2030 mission," he said.

It's good to see private players taking steps forward in electrifying India's road transport. That said, for India to truly become a 100 per cent EV nation, such initiatives need to be far more widespread and ideally, driven by the Government. Nonetheless, this is definitely a step in the right direction.