Onlykashmir.in News Desk
Jammu and Kashmir’s transition toward electric mobility remains held back by significant policy and infrastructure gaps, with the Union Territory placed 27th among 36 states and union territories in the India Electric Mobility Index 2025, even as it climbed seven places from the previous year’s ranking. The territory scored 31 points against a national average of 42, leaving it 11 points below the overall benchmark, while ranking sixth among 12 hilly and northeastern states assessed separately.
The gap becomes sharper on closer inspection of individual indicators. Jammu and Kashmir received zero points for government initiatives, purchase incentives, transition initiatives and operational support measures under the transport electrification theme, while private EV registration scored only 21 points, even as commercial EV registration achieved a full score of 100. Charging infrastructure tells a similarly uneven story, with the charger to vehicle ratio scoring 51 and power availability scoring a full 100, yet zero points recorded for capital subsidies for charging, infrastructure development initiatives and building bylaws for EVs, while renewable energy capacity linked to the theme scored only 17.
Research and development indicators reveal a comparable pattern. The territory scored 25 for EV startups and 62 for patents, but zero for R&D initiatives, suggesting that patent activity has developed without a matching institutional research ecosystem behind it. Across the three major assessment themes, Jammu and Kashmir trailed well behind national averages, with transport electrification at 33 against 77 nationally, charging infrastructure at 32 against 97, and EV research and innovation at 25 against 94, a gap most pronounced in charging infrastructure where the disparity points to a missing ecosystem rather than simply a shortage of vehicles.
The index does record some progress, noting that the Union Territory has been expanding its smart electric bus fleet with 200 additional e-buses intended to serve urban commuters as well as tourism and pilgrimage circuits, and pointing to an estimated 5.9 million tonnes of lithium reserves in the region as a potential strategic asset for India’s battery and EV manufacturing ambitions. The report itself recommends that Jammu and Kashmir frame and notify a dedicated EV policy, alongside stronger incentives for adoption, charging infrastructure and research. With the overall score rising from 20 in 2024 to 31 in 2025, the improvement is real but modest against a national average of 42, leaving the territory’s electric mobility preparedness still well short of the national benchmark.
