The Himachal Pradesh government has announced plans to gradually switch all of its government automobiles from ICE to electric in a phased manner over the next five years, as reported by HT Auto.
Objective
Naresh Chauhan, Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh’s Principal Media Advisor, explains that this government initiative seeks to preserve the environment. The state would also deploy additional charging infrastructures besides deploying more electric vehicles to ensure that there would not be a gap that could impede EV adoption.
“We will preserve the environment and also will save energy, our government has decided to go for electric vehicles during the next five years in all the government departments. Electronic vehicles will be bought from now and charging stations would be set up as we want to keep our environment clean and green.”
Naresh Chauhan
State policy
The Himachal Pradesh government has already adopted an electric vehicle policy since last year, which set a target of at least 15% of all new vehicle sales to be electric by 2025. Additionally, it foresees the future electrification of taxis and buses operated by the Himachal Road Transport Corporation.
That said, the state government has offered various incentives for EV purchases and formulated strategies to provide public charging station network.
Furthermore, Himachal Pradesh’s EV policy also emphasized the strategic locations of its charging network. The state’s EV policy ensures the following:
- Major towns and cities would have at least one EV charging station every square kilometer.
- The state highways on both sides would have at least one slow charging station every 25 kilometers.
- The national highways on both sides would have at least one fast charging station every 50 kilometers.
Meanwhile, the state government’s EV policy aims for Shimla, Baddi, and Dharamshala to serve as the benchmark cities for electric vehicle uptake.
Global concern has been raised by the transportation industry’s production of carbon emissions. Many governments, including India, have decided to support electric vehicles to meet their net zero emission targets.
It is worth noting that the uptake of electric vehicles would be impossible without government help, so India must maintain its commitment to its EV policy and look for ways to improve it.
