The government is considering establishing an electric vehicle target for state-owned common carriers

The government plans to give common carriers the objective of deploying a certain percentage of electric vehicles in their new orders, while refraining from publishing an electric vehicle policy, said a senior official from Niti Aayog.

In addition, the official said for personal transportation, Aayog is of the opinion that market forces should be allowed to decide whether people want to buy an electric car or a diesel / gasoline car .

"We would like to tell states that their carbon footprints should be minimized and we plan to give targets to the common carriers to deploy a certain percentage of electric vehicles in their new orders," said the official. PTI.

He added that "we do not need a policy on electric vehicles, we need a change in behavior".

The official also said that the government wants to encourage local production of electric vehicles.

According to one estimate, India currently has electric vehicles of 1 to 1.5 lakh and is expected to reach about 5% of the total number of vehicles over the next five years.

Of the approximately 24 million vehicles sold in India in 2017-2018, electric vehicles accounted for barely 1%.