After a fall in 2020 on account of the pandemic, the sale of electric vehicles increased significantly in 2021 when more than 3 lakh electric vehicles were sold. Close to 95% of the electric vehicles sold in 2021 were 2-wheelers & 3-wheelers. Despite the seemingly impressive numbers, the share of the electric vehicle sales in the total motor vehicle sales is still negligible. Globally, there has been a push for shift from Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles to electric vehicles following concerns over climate change, increase in energy costs, pollution, and depletion of fossil fuels. According to a recent report by the International Energy Agency (IEA), a Paris-based intergovernmental organization, about 1.3 lakh electric cars were sold every week in 2021. This number is the same as the total number of electric cars sold throughout the year in 2012. As per IEA, over 2.2 million electric cars were sold in 2019 accounting for 2.5% of the global car sales. In 2020, though the overall sales of cars had contracted, electric car sales rose to 3 million accounting for 4.1% of total car sales which doubled in 2021 to 6.6 million accounting for 9% of the total global car sales. In the last three years, the market share of electric cars has more than tripled globally. Governments have rolled out incentives to boost shift to Electric Vehicles In India, the government came up with the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP) 2020 in the year 2012 which aimed at boosting electric vehicle manufacturing in the country and faster adoption of electric vehicles. As part of the plan, the government is implementing the FAME India Scheme since 2015 in a phased manner. Under the scheme, the focus has been on providing demand incentives, charging infrastructure development, and demand creation, among others. Electric vehicle policies are at different stages of proposal/implementation across most states. Recently, the Odisha government announced a subsidy of 15% up to Rs. 5,000, Rs.12,000 and Rs.1 lakh for two, three, and four-wheeler electric vehicles. According to reports, the Delhi Government has launched registration for centres which will undertake electric retrofitting of old diesel and petrol vehicles and convert them into electric cars. VAHAN dashboard provides data on the registration of motor vehicles The VAHAN dashboard provides data on the registration of motor vehicles from across the country including electric vehicles. Maintained by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH), the VAHAN dashboard is a centralized database of registration of vehicles from 33 out of 37 states/UTs which are enrolled in VAHAN 4.0. The figures from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Lakshadweep, and Madhya Pradesh are not included here. The figures pertain to 1386 RTOs of the total 1597 RTOs in the country. Significant increase in registration of electric vehicles in 2021 As per the data on the dashboard, the registration of electric vehicles has increased considerably since 2013. Only about 5,500 electric vehicles were registered in the country in 2013 and 2014 put together which increased to more than 9,000 in 2015. It was in 2015 that the first phase of the FAME Scheme was launched. The number of registrations crossed 50,000 marking an increase by 5.7 times, in 2016. Since then, there was a gradual growth in electric vehicle registrations until 2019. During this period, the registrations more than tripled. Under Phase-I of the FAME India Scheme, over 2.8 lakh electric and hybrid vehicles were supported. Under phase-II which commenced in 2019, over 2.31 lakh Electric Vehicles have been supported till February 2022, according to the Ministry of Heavy Industries. In 2020, the pandemic’s impact on the economy and its effect on vehicle production and sales meant that the electric vehicle registrations also came down. The number of electric vehicles registered in 2020 dropped to 1.19 lakh, the lowest since 2018. However, in 2021, a record 3.11 lakh electric vehicles were registered, more than the total number of electric vehicles registered between 2012 and 2018. As on 10 February 2022, in only about 40 days into 2022, close to 66,000 electric vehicles have been registered. If the trend continues throughout the year, 2022 might well see over 5 lakh electric vehicle registrations if not more. Despite an increase, electric vehicles constitute only 1.9% of total vehicles registered in 2021 The number of electric vehicles registered has increased manifold over the years. However, as a share of the total number of vehicles registered including ICE and Hybrid vehicles, electric vehicles account for only 0.35% of the total number with less than 10 lakhs registered so far.