Telangana unveils EV policy to attract $4bn investment by 2030

<p id="content">The government of Telangana today unveiled Electric Vehicle & Energy Storage Policy 2020, offering a slew of incentives for the manufacture, purchase and use of Electric Vehicles (EVs).</p>
The policy, launched by state industries minister K.T. Rama Rao at Telangana Electric Vehicle Summit, aims to attract $4 billion in investments and creating 1.2 lakh jobs in EV space by 2030.

The comprehensive policy is designed to woo domestic and global players in the EV and energy storage segments to make Telangana, especially Hyderabad, a manufacturing and innovation hub.

The policy's objective is to make Telangana the preferred destination for Electric Vehicle, Energy Storage Systems (ESS) and component manufacturing and to proactively support the creation of EV charging infrastructure.

To incentivize usage of EVs, the policy offers exemption from road tax and registration fee to the first set of two lakh two-wheelers, 20,000 three-wheelers, 5,000 commercial four-wheeler passenger vehicles, 5,000 four-wheeler private vehicles, and 500 electric buses, all purchased and registered in Telangana.

The exemption will also be extended to 10,000 three-wheelers (goods), e-carriers, as well as electric light goods carriers, light commercial vehicles.

The exemption will also be available for electric tractors purchased and registered in Telangana as per the existing rules/guidelines applicable for tractors by Transport Department.

Retro-fitment incentive will be given at 15 per cent of the retro-fitment cost capped at Rs 15,000 per vehicle for first 5,000 retrofits 3-seater auto-rickshaws.

Telangana State Electricity Regulatory Commission will provide special power tariff category for electric vehicle charging stations.

TSREDCO, state nodal Agency, will establish public charging stations directly or under the licensee/franchise/PPP model at airports, railway/ metro stations, parking lots, bus depots, markets, petrol stations, malls & electric poles.

Existing residential townships with over 1000 families will be encouraged to develop charging stations lots.

For the manufacturers of EVs, the policy offers capital subsidies, state GST reimbursements and power tariff subsidies.

The government will extend tailor-made benefits to mega and strategic projects on case-to-case basis. Investment of more than Rs 200 crore in plant and machinery or employing more than 1,000 persons will be categorised as a mega project.

The industry minister said that efforts will be made to promote last and first mile connectivity for public transport. Steps will also be taken for gradual shift of public transport buses from internal combustion engines to EVs and to encourage general use of electric mobility.

The event saw at least six EV firm signing MoUs with the state government to set up their manufacturing units in the state with an investment of about Rs 3,000 crore.

"We invite the Industry to come and make Telangana their manufacturing base as we believe local production is the key to achieve price/performance parity and enable faster adoption of Electric Vehicles," the minister said.

KTR, as the minister is popularly known, announced that the government establishing 178 charging stations in the state. He said public road transport arm TSRTC has already pressed into service a fleet of 40 electric buses.

He said along with the existing electronic manufacturing and innovation clusters, the upcoming mobility and ESS clusters will position Telangana as the leader in the sustainable and renewable energy sector.

Referring to the M&M manufacturing facility near Zaheerabad, the minister said that the area will be transformed into a manufacturing hub for EVs, encouraging both OEMs and their supply chain vendors..