New Delhi [India], January 19 (ANI): The Delhi government on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL) for providing 5 per cent interest subvention on the purchase of Electric Vehicles on loans for the purchase of selected categories of Electric Vehicles (EVs) in Delhi.

The MoU was signed by Vinod Kumar Yadav, Deputy Commissioner, Transport Department, Government of Delhi and Polash Das representing CESL in presence of Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot.

Under this partnership, CESL will empanel Financial Institutions like Scheduled Banks, Non-Banking Financial Institutions and Micro-Financing Institutions. Through this empanelment, the FIs will provide loans with a minimum 80 per cent Loan-to-Value at interest rates of a maximum of 20 per cent including the interest subvention for a loan tenure.

If the mandatory maximum interest rate is 20 per cent, Financial Institutions empanelled by CESL are expected to provide loans to the borrowers at interest rates not more than 15 per cent. This scheme also looks forward to helping individual fleet owners or those in leading eCommerce, grocery or delivery organisations, to increase their fleet size using interest subvention for the purchase of goods vehicles. The benefit of the interest rate subvention, the scheme can be availed by an EV purchaser for the specified categories of EVs under the Delhi EV Policy 2020.

Apart from this, the Transport department also signed a separate MoU with CESL for the installation of charging stations and battery swapping stations at finalised cluster bus depots. As per the consideration of the MoU, CESL has agreed to procure, install, operate and maintain charging units and related infrastructure at the location of the cluster bus depots at its costs and expenses.

The charges for usage of location shall be paid by CESL to Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) every month at the rate of Rs 1.00 per kWh of energy dispensed. If the space required by the concessionaire is more than 3 ECS (Equivalent Car Space) then Rs 2000 extra would be levied per ECS per month. Initially, the contract period is of 10 years. According to the MoU signed, CESL will start the work immediately and will finish the installation of all stations in the next 4 months.

The location assessment survey at various DTC cluster bus depots at Rani Khera-I, Rani Khera-II, Rani Khera-III, Rajghat, Dilshad Garden, Seema Puri, Bawana Sec-1, Bawana Sec-5, Kanjhawala, Kair, Dichaon Kalan, Dwarka Sec-22, Rewla Khanpur, and Chhatarpur have been identified jointly by the Department of Transport and EESL for the setting up of Public Electric Vehicle Charging StationsBattery Swapping Stations. Each of the 14 locations will have a total of 6 charging points each, 3 of which will be for 2 and 3 wheelers and 3 points for 4 wheelers.

In a statement, Transport Minister Kailash Gehlot said, "This agreement will help in accelerating the adoption of lithium-ion-based e-rickshaws and e-carts along with electric autos and electric Light Goods Vehicles in the national capital. The 5 per cent Interest Subvention on loans on the purchase ofEVs is in addition to the applicable purchase incentive of Rs 30,000 and scrapping incentives of up to Rs 7,500 under the Delhi EV Policy. Through this scheme, an electric auto and electric light commercial vehicle will be able to avail upto Rs 25,000 additional benefit.''''Delhi, since the launch of EV policy in August 2020, we are continuously working in promoting and incentivizing the sales of Electric vehicles. For Oct 2021-Dec 2021, electric vehicles contributed to over 8 per cent of total vehicle sales in Delhi. More than 31,000 electric vehicles sold since the announcement of the Delhi EV Policy, in August 2020," he added.

Gehlot also said, "To ensure a transparent and smooth process to pass on the benefits to the consumers, CESL in collaboration with Delhi government will launch an online portal for consumers to avail options to choose from several empanelled models of lithium-ion battery-operated electric three-wheelers including E-Autos, E- rickshaws, E-carts and Goods carriers, registered as per the Delhi EV Policy 2020.'' (ANI)