Winter in Delhi, like most parts of northern India, brings toxic air. Climatic conditions along with episodic events like crop burning and ...
Winter in Delhi, like most parts of northern India, brings toxic air. Climatic conditions along with episodic events like crop burning and Diwali also worsen the air quality. As per the State of Global Air 2018 report, air pollution is a silent killer in India and the country lost about 11 lakh people due to it. But that is not all. Recent studies show that almost 27% of Covid-19 cases in East Asia are a result of long-term exposure to polluted air.
Combating toxic air requires action on multiple fronts and one such area is reducing vehicular emissions. Studies show that in a city like Delhi motor vehicles are the major source of pollutants emissions, contributing to about 40% of PM2.5 (ultrafine particles that are less than 2.5 microns in size and are responsible for health issues).
To address the issues of vehicular emission, states like Delhi are taking a holistic approach to promote electric vehicles. Launched in August, Delhi Government’s EV policy has an ambitious target of having a 25% share of battery electric vehicles in new vehicle registrations by 2024.
However, scaling up electric vehicles needs substantive work in terms of charging infrastructure development, EV model availability, public awareness, etc. In addition to this, the high...
