Electric vehicles likely to get registration fee waiver

The cost of electric vehicles and renewal of registration for the green vehicles is soon to get cheaper. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has issued a draft notification, proposing to exempt Battery Operated Vehicles (BOV) from payment of fees for the purpose of issue or renewal of Registration Certificate (RC) and assignment of new registration mark.

• Draft notification issued on May 27
• Open to comments from public and stake holders for 30 days

The Draft notification

Not much detail has been provided in the draft notification aside from the addition of a line in Rule 81 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989.

The notification states: “Provided further that, for the Battery Operated Vehicles as defined in rule 2(u); the items given at Sl. no. 4 of the below mentioned TABLE shall be exempted from the payment of fees for the purpose of issue or renewal of registration certificate and assignment of new registration mark.”

Rule 2(u) defines a Battery Operated Vehicle as a “vehicle adapted for use upon roads and powered exclusively by an electric motor whose traction energy is supplied exclusively by traction battery installed in the vehicle” with certain exemptions.

Rule 81 pertains to the various fees chargeable to vehicle owners ranging from grant and renewal of trade certificate for vehicles to issue of registration certificates, transfer of ownership and more. SI no 4 within Rule 81 in particular deals with the fees chargeable for the issue and renewal of certificates of registration and assignment of new registration mark for all categories of vehicles.

This the ministry says is to encourage e-mobility and adoption of electric vehicles in the country.

EVs in India

Electric vehicles are slowly starting to catch on in the Indian market with more mass market brands such as Tata, Hyundai and MG having launched products in this space in the past few years.

Tata has for a few years now marketed the Tigor EV to commercial and private buyers with the Nexon EV being added to the line-up early last year. Higher up the segment Hyundai introduced the Kona Electric in India back in 2019 with MG’s all-electric ZS EV arriving in early 2020. The MG electric SUV also received an update earlier this year bringing with it a new battery pack and increased ground clearance.

Even on the luxury side of things, Mercedes-Benz and Jaguar have brought EVs from their global portfolio – the EQC and I-Pace respectively – to India with Audi also expected to join the segment with their e-tron SUV.