The government on Tuesday said it has supported around 1.65 lakh electric vehicles (EVs) as on November 25, by way of demand incentive amounting to ₹564 crore, and further, 6,315 electrical buses have been sanctioned to various State/city transport undertakings under Phase-II of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles (FAME) scheme.

The Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI) had formulated the scheme in 2015 to promote adoption of electric/ hybrid vehicles. Phase- l of the scheme was available up to March 31, 2019.

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“The Ministry has also sanctioned 2,877 EV charging stations amounting to ₹500 crore in 68 cities across 25 States/ UTs and 1,576 charging stations amounting to ₹108 crore across nine expressways and 16 highways under FAME India scheme phase II,” the MHI informed the Parliament.

Demand incentive

In the first phase of the scheme, about 2.8 lakh hybrid and EVs were supported by way of demand incentive, amounting to about ₹359 crore. MHI had also sanctioned 425 electric and hybrid buses to various cities in the country with total cost of around ₹280 crore, . The MHI had sanctioned around 520 charging stations/ infrastructure for ₹43 crore under Phase-I of FAME India Scheme.

Further, specific projects under Pilot Projects, R&D/Technology Development and Public Charging Infrastructure components were sanctioned by the Project Implementation & Sanctioning Committee (PISC) for extending grant under the different focus areas of the scheme.

Support for private companies

The government notified Phase-II of FAME India scheme on March 8, 2019, which is for a period of five years (effective April 1, 2019) with a total budgetary support of ₹10,000 crore.

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This phase focusses on supporting electrification of public and shared transportation and aims to support, through subsidies, around 7,000 e-Buses, five-lakh electric three-wheelers, 55,000 electric four wheeler passenger cars and 10 lakh electric two-wheelers. In addition, creation of charging infrastructure is also supported to address range anxiety among users of EVs, the MHI said.