Out of the 60.24 lakh vehicles (that run on petrol/diesel) registered in the state, only 9,714 are battery-operated, which is when converted to Percentage, comes down to 0.16%.
However, the figure is lower as per FAME-II which says 705 two-wheelers, 349 three-wheelers and 33 four-wheelers are registered as e-vehicles inJharkhand.
The primary objective of FAME-II, which was launched by the Centre in April, 2019, is to encourage faster adoption of electric vehicles by offering an incentive for purchasing electric vehicles. Although the Centre grants subsidy for purchasing e-vehicles, unlike other states, no such offer is given by Jharkhand, part of the reason why people are hesitant to switch to battery-operated vehicles. Coupled with that, the fact that there are not enough charging facilities in the state is discouraging people from buying e-vehicles.
The state charges 9% for vehicles priced over Rs.1 lakh and 8% for vehicles priced under Rs 1 lakh as registration fee.
The state industries department recently notified the Jharkhand Industrial and Promotion Policy, 2021 but it did not contain any clause on the promotion of e-vehicles. A chapter on automobile, auto-component and electric vehicles mentions incentives for automobile the sector as a whole, but it does not say anything about e-vehicles particularly. The document also fails to envision the route map to transition and catching up with the FAME scheme.