2 weeks Ago
The third private car purchased in every Delhi household must be an electric vehicle, no fossil fuel-run three-wheelers will be registered from August this year and no non-electric two-wheeler will be allowed to register from August 2026, the state government is likely to stipulate as part of its ambitious Electric Vehicles Policy 2.0, according to officials aware of the matter. Delhi transport minister Pankaj Kumar Singh has approved the policy in principle and it will now be presented to the cabinet, one of the officials said.
“The new policy has some bold targets aimed at ensuring EV transition in every vehicle segment. In some categories, we hope that we will be able to achieve 100% new vehicles being registered are EVs in Delhi. We have also developed strategies around how this will be done,” a senior transport official, not wishing to be named, said.
Registration of petrol, diesel or CNG-run two-wheelers will not be allowed from August 2026, said the policy, a copy of which was accessed by HT. For the three-wheeler segment, all CNG autorickshaws over 10 years old will be mandatorily replaced or retrofitted with electric autorickshaws during the policy period. Experts called the move “progressive” and said the move could catalyse the transition to electric vehicles in a city where internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles are among the biggest domestic sources of pollution.
“According to the proposed policy, no CNG autorickshaw or three-wheeler goods carrier registration will be allowed after August 2025 and no CNG auto permits will be renewed from August 2025. All such permits will be substituted or reissued as only e-auto permits,” a second official familiar with the policy said. The policy also proposes to mandate all garbage collection vehicles used by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), Delhi Jal Board (DJB) and other civic agencies to be transitioned to EVs in a phased manner and achieve 100% electric fleet by 2027.
According to the proposal, over 13,200 charging stations will be set up across the city, ensuring a station every five kilometres. While the previous policy proposed setting up 48,000 charging points by 2026, only 10% has been achieved. To be sure, one charging station can have multiple charging points.
Officials said that the policy is chiefly aimed at ensuring that 95% of new vehicles registered in Delhi will be electric by 2027, and 98% by 2030. The previous policy aimed at ensuring 25% new registrations by 2024, but only reached 13-14%. They said that the old policy was supposed to be revised in 2023 and that they may choose to revise it by 2027, depending on achievements.
Officials said the four key objectives of the policy are to combat air pollution and improve public health, create livelihood opportunities in the EV ecosystem, enhance energy security and grid resilience, and ensure equitable and affordable EV transition. Transport officials said that the government is steadily increasing the e-bus fleet in Delhi and more buses have been procured that will increase the fleet to around 3,000 by the year-end. Further, it has also been made mandatory for the government to only procure electric vehicles.
According to information shared by the transport department and ministry of road transport and highways, 9.77 two-wheelers have been registered in Delhi in all, with 7,552, 34,581, 37,477 and 31,339 electric two-wheelers registered from 2021 to 2024, respectively. Experts said a strong policy push was the need of the hour as Delhi has outrun the benefits it could achieve by transitioning to CNG vehicles.
“The Delhi government’s new electric vehicles policy is arguably the most progressive state-level plan for transition. The ban on ICE (internal combustion engine) two-wheeler registrations beyond August 15, 2026, could set a strong precedent for the country. However, a similar phase-out plan for internal combustion engine cars is missing which needs to be considered on a priority,” said Amit Bhatt, managing director (India), International Council of Clean Transport (ICCT).
Bhatt added that in the two-wheeler segment, demand can easily be met—similar to Delhi’s CNG bus transition over two decades ago. At the time, no manufacturers produced CNG buses until court mandates were enforced, but the demand was quickly met by multiple manufacturers. He emphasised that systematic policy implementation can ensure targets are achievable and realistic.
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