Delhi EV Subsidy Scheme (Delhi Electric Vehicles Policy, 2020)

What is the Delhi EV Subsidy Scheme?

Delhi EV Subsidy Scheme is the package of purchase incentives, scrapping incentives, interest subvention and tax waivers created by the Delhi Electric Vehicles Policy, 2020, notified by the Transport Department, Government of NCT of Delhi on 7 August 2020 under File No. DC/OPS/TPT/1260/2018/38704. The policy itself was approved by the Council of Ministers vide Cabinet Decision No. 2796 dated 23 December 2019.

The Transport Department is the nodal department, and the policy required a dedicated EV Cell inside the department for day-to-day implementation, with a State Electric Vehicle Board as the apex review body. Public-facing information, the eligible model list and the incentive claim login sit on ev.delhi.gov.in, the department's SwitchDelhi portal.

Delhi's incentives are in addition to the demand incentives available under the central FAME India Phase-II scheme, not in place of them. The policy states this explicitly. The stated objective is to improve Delhi's air quality by cutting transport-sector emissions.

What the policy offers, in four parts

• Purchase incentives, paid on battery capacity or as a flat amount.
• Scrapping incentives, paid for scrapping and de-registering an old internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle registered in Delhi.
• Interest subvention of 5 per cent on loans for specified commercial segments.
• Waiver of road tax and registration fees for all battery electric vehicles.

How much is the Delhi EV subsidy for each vehicle type?

Two caps in this table are easy to miss. The e-car incentive applies to the first 1,000 e-cars registered in Delhi after the policy was issued, and the e-goods carrier incentive applies to the first 10,000 e-carriers. Both are capped cohorts, not open-ended entitlements.

The e-car incentive is further limited to electric four-wheelers with advanced batteries listed as eligible under FAME India Phase II, having satisfied that scheme's eligibility and testing conditions, and includes swappable models where the battery is not sold with the vehicle.

For electric two-wheelers, incentives are keyed to eligibility criteria aligned with FAME India Phase II, but the Delhi policy deliberately drops three of the central conditions: there is no minimum vehicle range, no mandatory local manufacturing requirement, and no requirement to fit monitoring devices. The two-wheeler must not exceed 7 kWh per 100 km of electric energy consumption.

Two-wheeler OEMs must register their eligible models, including swappable-battery models, with the Transport Department, supported by certification from a testing agency recognised under Rule 126 of the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989. The department publishes the resulting list of eligible models online. If your model is not on that list, no incentive is payable, however good the vehicle is.

Who is eligible for the Delhi EV incentive?

You can claim if:

• You are the registered owner of a battery electric vehicle registered in Delhi after the policy was issued.
• The model appears on the Transport Department's published list of eligible e-vehicle models for that segment.
• For an e-auto, you hold a valid e-auto permit.
• For an e-rickshaw or e-cart, you hold a valid driving licence.
• For the scrapping incentive, you produce confirmation of scrapping and de-registration of an old ICE vehicle registered in Delhi, plus evidence of a matching contribution from the dealer or OEM.
• For the interest subvention, your loan is from the Delhi Finance Corporation or a DFC-empanelled financier.

You are not eligible if:

• The vehicle is registered outside Delhi. Registration in the NCT of Delhi is the basic condition for every incentive under the policy.
• The vehicle is not a battery electric vehicle, hybrids and CNG vehicles draw nothing under this policy.
• The model is not registered with the Transport Department as an eligible model for that segment.
• You are claiming an e-car incentive after the first 1,000 e-cars cohort is exhausted, or an e-goods carrier incentive after the first 10,000 cohort is exhausted.
• You scrapped an ICE vehicle not registered in Delhi, or you cannot show the dealer or OEM matching contribution: in which case the purchase incentive may still stand but the scrapping incentive cannot.
• You took the vehicle loan from a bank or NBFC that DFC has not empanelled; the interest subvention then cannot apply.

Applications for battery-vehicle subsidy that were pending with the Environment Department under the older Air Ambience Fund route on the date the policy was issued continued to be dealt with by the Environment Department. Everything after that date falls under this policy.

How to apply for the Delhi EV subsidy

1. Check the eligible model list on ev.delhi.gov.in before you book. Only models registered by the OEM with the Transport Department attract the incentive, and the battery capacity in kWh on the invoice drives the amount.
2. Buy and register the vehicle in Delhi. Road tax and registration fees are waived at this stage for battery electric vehicles, so you should not be charged them at all.
3. Collect the claim documents: purchase invoice showing battery capacity, Registration Certificate, Aadhaar and bank account details of the registered owner.
4. File the incentive claim through the incentive login linked from ev.delhi.gov.in, after purchase. Most Delhi EV dealers file this on the buyer's behalf; the claim is nonetheless made in the registered owner's name and the money reaches the owner.
5. Add the scrapping documents if applicable — the scrapping and de-registration certificate for the old ICE vehicle registered in Delhi, and written evidence of the matching contribution from the dealer or OEM.
6. Apply separately for interest subvention through the Delhi Finance Corporation or the DFC-empanelled bank or NBFC financing your e-auto, e-rickshaw, e-cart or goods carrier.
7. Affix the scheme sticker in the Transport Department's format once the incentive is sanctioned, and ensure the green number plate is fitted.

How is the money paid?

The Transport Department pays the purchase and scrapping incentives directly to the registered owner, based on claims made by individual buyers after the purchase of the vehicle. The policy is explicit that this is a claim-after-purchase model rather than a price reduction at the showroom, and that operational guidelines for delivery of the demand incentives are issued from time to time by the Transport Department with the approval of the Minister (Transport) as competent authority.

For a swappable-battery model where the battery is not sold with the vehicle, the split is fixed by the policy; 50 per cent of the purchase incentive to the vehicle owner, and up to the remaining 50 per cent to the Energy Operator to defray any deposit the end user must pay for the swappable battery.

What other benefits come with an EV in Delhi?

• Full waiver of road tax and registration fees for all battery electric vehicles for the period of the policy.
• Green number plate, issued in accordance with MoRTH notification No. RT-11028/03/2018-MVL dated 7 August 2018.
• Exemption from plying and idle-parking restrictions for L5N and N1 category electric goods carriers on identified roads of Delhi, ordered separately by the Transport Department.
• Financing support from the Delhi Finance Corporation for delivery service providers that commit to the policy's fleet-conversion targets.
• Retrofitting route, under which 10-year-old diesel and 15-year-old petrol vehicles can be converted to electric through agencies empanelled by the Transport Department.

Why EV incentive claims get rejected

• Vehicle registered outside Delhi, which disqualifies the claim outright.
• Model not on the eligible list, usually because the OEM has not registered that variant with the Transport Department.
• Battery capacity not stated on the invoice, leaving no basis to compute a per-kWh incentive.
• Cohort exhausted for e-cars or e-goods carriers.
• Scrapping claim without de-registration; scrapping alone is not enough, the old vehicle must also be de-registered, and it must have been registered in Delhi.
• No matching contribution evidence from the dealer or OEM on a scrapping claim.
• Name or account mismatch between the RC, Aadhaar and the bank account submitted for direct transfer.

Where do I get help?

• Transport Department, GNCTD, 5/9 Under Hill Road, Civil Lines, near Ludlow Castle, Delhi 110054 to phone 011-2398 0166, listed on ev.delhi.gov.in.
• EV Cell email: delhievcell@gmail.com and switchdelhi.ev@gmail.com.
• Policy page and PDF on transport.delhi.gov.in, which carries the phone number 011-23994223 for policy queries.
• EV WhatsApp chatbot, an official channel linked from ev.delhi.gov.in for EV-related queries.
• Orders, notices and circulars section of ev.delhi.gov.in, which is where continuation orders and revised operational guidelines are published.

No dealer or agent can charge a separate fee to "get your subsidy sanctioned". The claim is free, it is made in the registered owner's name, and the incentive is credited by the Transport Department to the owner's own bank account.

How to check your application status

The Delhi EV incentive claim does not run through a public tracking number the way a central government scheme does, so checking status means following up through the same channels the claim was filed on.

1. Ask the dealer first. Most Delhi EV dealers file the incentive claim on the buyer's behalf at the time of sale, so the dealer's own back office usually knows whether the claim has been submitted to the Transport Department, is under processing, or has already been sanctioned. Since the claim and the payout are always in the registered owner's name, the dealer can only tell you the stage, not collect the money for you.
2. Log in to the incentive portal. If you or your dealer filed directly through the incentive login linked from ev.delhi.gov.in, sign back in with the same credentials used at filing to see whether the claim is still pending, has been queried, or has moved to disbursal.
3. Call the Transport Department helpline on 011-2398 0166 with your vehicle registration number and the date the claim was filed, and ask for the claim status.
4. Use the EV Cell email IDs (delhievcell@gmail.com and switchdelhi.ev@gmail.com) for a written status query, quoting the registration certificate number and the invoice date. Email is useful when you need a written record of your follow-up.
5. Try the official EV WhatsApp chatbot linked from ev.delhi.gov.in for a quicker automated check on common queries, including incentive processing.
6. Check the Orders, notices and circulars section of ev.delhi.gov.in if the payment seems delayed across the board. The Transport Department periodically posts continuation orders and revised operational guidelines there, and a sector-wide delay is sometimes explained by a pending order rather than a problem with your individual claim.
7. For the interest subvention, status has to be checked with the Delhi Finance Corporation or the DFC-empanelled bank or NBFC that sanctioned the loan, since the subvention is applied through the lender's own account, not through the Transport Department's incentive portal.

If a claim has been pending for an unusually long time, keep the purchase invoice, Registration Certificate and any acknowledgement number from the portal or dealer ready before you call or write in. Officials can generally trace a claim faster with the registration number and invoice date than with a name alone, since many claims share common applicant details in a large city like Delhi.