In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, the Minister of State for Heavy Industries and Steel Bhupathi Raju Srinivasa Varma provided an update on the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) in India and schemes linked to promote them.
To promote manufacturing and adoption of EVs, the central government launched the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid & Electric Vehicles in India (FAME India) scheme in 2015. The aim was to reduce fossil fuel dependence and address vehicular emissions. The second phase of FAME India scheme came into effect on April 1, 2019. It has a total budget of Rs 11.5 billion for five years. Under this scheme, the consumers are sold EVs at a lower price and the loss is reimbursed to the manufacturer by the government of India.
During Phase-1, 280,000 EVs benefitted from this scheme with an approximate disbursement of Rs 3.59 billion. In addition, technology development projects worth Rs 1.58 billion were set up in various research organisations and institutions like IIT Kanpur.
During the second phase, 6,862 electric buses have been sanctioned to various locations in India under this scheme. Out of the total sanctioned, 4,853 e-buses have been supplied till July 31, 2024.
Other schemes launched to include:
- Electric Mobility Promotion Scheme (EMPS) 2024 with an outlay of Rs 7.78 billion for a period 6 months (April 1, 2024 till September 30, 2024), which provides incentives to buyers of e-2W and e-3W.
- Production Linked Incentive Scheme for Automobile and Auto Component Industry with a budgetary outlay of Rs 259.38 billion. The scheme incentivises various categories of EVs including e-2W, e-3W, e-4W, e-buses and e-trucks.
- Production Linked Incentive Scheme for manufacturing of Advanced Chemistry Cell in the country with a budget of Rs 181 billion.
As of July 29, 2024, over 4,574,938 EVs have been registered on the e-vahan portal. In 2023-24, 1,681,127 EVs were registered, an increase of 42.06 per cent compared to annual EV registrations in 2022-23.
