Gandhinagar: Gujarat is ranked eighth among Indian states in terms of the total number of electric vehicles (EVs), with  99,236 EVs in the state as of March 6, stated the Union government in Parliament on Wednesday.

However, the figure corresponds to merely 0.44% of all vehicles enrolled in the state. In contrast to the state’s entire vehicle population of 2.22 crore, the proportion of EVs is still less than the national average of 0.6%. States such as Rajasthan and Bihar have more EVs than Gujarat.

Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of EVs (4.65 lakhs) followed by Maharashtra (2.26 lakh) and Delhi (2.03 lakh). On the other hand, Sikkim has the lowest number of EVs in the country with only 21. The total number of EVs in the country as of March 6 was 21.70 lakh.

The government has taken several steps to promote the use of EVs, including approving the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for advanced chemistry cells (ACC) to promote their manufacture with a budgetary outlay of Rs 18,100 crore. Additionally, EVs are incentivized under the PLI scheme for automobiles and auto components with a budgetary outlay of Rs 25,938 crore for five years. The government has also reduced the GST on EVs from 12% to 5% and on charging stations from 18% to 5%. DeshGujarat