Maharashtra leads in electric buses, Delhi is a close second: Road transport and highways ministry

New Delhi: Maharashtra has the most electric buses, with Delhi coming a close second in data released by the ministry of road transport and highways on Thursday.

Maharashtra had 2,111 electric buses and Delhi has 2,011 as of 19 July this year.

The data includes buses, omni buses, and ‘educational institution buses’.

Karnataka tops the list for hybrid buses with 84, along with 1,195 electric buses. Gujarat has 895 electric buses.

The data was gathered from the Vahan 4 database, which includes all states and union territories except Lakshadweep and Telangana, and presented in the Lok Sabha as a written reply.

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The data comes amid changes in the electric vehicle manufacturing scenario. Currently, the ministry of heavy industries is running an Electric Mobility Production Scheme (EMPS) to provide incentives for manufacturing electric vehicles. This scheme is poised to end on 31 July, after which another scheme, FAME-III, will take over.

The third iteration of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles—FAME—is expected to have a budget outlay of ₹10,000 crore, of which ₹2,000 crore has been set aside for developing India's charging infrastructure, as previously reported by Mint.

The previous edition—FAME-II—was designed to generate demand for electric vehicles by way of supporting 7,000 e-buses, 500,000 e-3 wheelers, 55,000 electric cars and 1 million e-2 wheelers.

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As per the ministry's data given on Thursday, 8,938 electric buses and 205 ‘strong hybrid’ buses are in use today across the country.

Electric buses are zero-emission vehicles, which means they do not emit any pollutants. Hybrid buses use an internal combustion engine (ICE) which uses non-renewable sources of energy like petrol and diesel, as well as an electric battery. These buses are capable of running on electricity, reducing emissions.