Power minister urges Union ministers, CMs to switch fleet to EVs

1,590 EVS HAVE ALREADY BEEN DEPLOYED IN 160 CENTRAL AND STATE GOVERNMENTS ACROSS 49 CITIES

NEW DELHI: Power and new and renewable energy minister Raj Kumar Singh has urged all Union ministers and state chief ministers to convert their fleet of government vehicles into electric, in a new push towards expanding India’s green mobility footprint.

The power ministry’s move assumes significance as ministries and departments under the Union government, and states have a large fleet of vehicles. Also, this comes ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference, also known as COP-26, to be held in Glasgow in November.

“As part of its efforts to promote electric vehicles in the country, the Union minister of power and new and renewable energy has written to all the Union ministers including the minster of states (independent charge) and chief ministers of all the states/UTs to join the Government of India’s initiative on transformative mobility and advice their respective ministries/departments to convert their fleet of official vehicles from present internal combustion engine (ICE)/petrol/diesel vehicles to electric vehicles for all official purposes,” the Union power ministry said in a statement on Friday.

As part of the strategy to popularize green mobility in the country, a total of 1,590 electric cars have already been deployed in 160 central and state governments across 49 cities. There is also a growing traction for India’s plan to develop a battery storage ecosystem that involves setting up 50-gigawatt hour (GWh) manufacturing capacity for advance chemistry cell batteries by attracting investments totaling ₹45,000 crore.

The focus on changing the government fleet to electric also comes at a time when climate change is a clear and present danger as articulated by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report which stated that extreme weather events will impact lives, livelihoods, and businesses in India and South Asia, and called for immediate steps to mitigate climate change.