Srinagar: Amid rising fuel prices, the demand for electric scooters in Kashmir has increased manifold during this year.
The electric scooters are battery driven, currently they are in high demand as these scooters don’t need fuel which has become a costly affair. The price of petrol is Rs 104.7 per litre.
To add to it, the government of India has recently introduced a number of subsidies, as a result of which many electric vehicle manufacturing companies have slashed the prices of these battery driven scooters.
“ We are witnessing a huge demand for electric scooters, in-fact our customers have to wait for weeks to get their scooters as the demand is high and sales too have witnessed an upsurge,” said Omar Farooq, owner of Global Motors which sells Hero electric scooters.
“ It is a future technology, our customers are happy as in three years time they will get their investment of buying this vehicle back without any additional input cost. Though we have started our business from 2017, since last year there is huge demand.”
“Earlier when we started selling electric scooters demand was not much, there was less acceptability among people. But with passing time and modifications, up-gradation manufacturing companies have introduced, there is change, people have started realizing that it is a future technology as a result of which demand has increased manifold.” Farooq said.
Asif Ahmad, EV dealer, said that on an average he sells 10 e-scooters a day. “The demand is high; the number of queries is huge. We are facing difficulty to meet the demand as more and more people are coming forward to buy electric scooters in order to save fuel expenditure which is increasing with each passing day.”
With rising fuel prices many people now prefer to buy electric scooters rather than traditional ones.
Sajad Ahmad, who works as marketing executive with a chocolate manufacturing firm said that his daily fuel bill was Rs 300. “Last month I purchased an electric scooter; it has saved my petrol expenses. All I need to do is charge it for a few hours and enjoy free rides. Many of my colleagues have also decided to buy electric scooters as our job demand a lot of travel.”
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has issued a notification that exempts electric vehicles from registration charges. The notification comes into effect from 2 August, 2021.
According to MoRTH, the notification is a part of the government’s plan to encourage e-mobility. As per the notification, Battery Operated Vehicles (BOVs) will be exempted from registration, including new registrations as well as renewals.
The NITI Aayog has recommended the government provide subsidy for electric vehicle purchase over and above the existing subsidy scheme for electric vehicle adoption under the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing the Electric Vehicles scheme besides including EVs under priority lending sector.