The Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises issued a notification stating that in order to promote the use of electric vehicles, the government has extended FAME India Scheme (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid & Electric Vehicles), a programme that extends incentives to spur purchase and usage of electric vehicles by six months for phase I of the scheme.
Phase I of FAME-India Scheme was launched for a two-year period between April 1, 2015, and March 31, 2017, at an approved outlay of Rs 795 crore. The scheme was subsequently extended for six months till September 30, 2017. Under the scheme, a total of 150,550 hybrid and electric vehicles received incentives till July 26, 2017.
As per the scheme, depending on technology, battery-operated scooters and motorcycles are eligible for incentives ranging between Rs 1,800 and Rs 29,000, three-wheeler for incentives in the range of Rs 3,300-61,000. In four-wheelers, the incentives range from Rs 13,000 to Rs 1.38 lakh, in light commercial vehicles it is from Rs 17,000 to Rs 1.87 lakh, and for buses it is from Rs 34-66 lakh.
FAME-India is part of the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP), which was launched in 2015. Under the NEMMP scheme, the government was to invest up to Rs 14,000 crore in creating infrastructure and promoting the use of environment-friendly electric vehicles.
Industry was to pitch in the extra Rs 10,000 crore required to develop products and create a manufacturing ecosystem. The scheme has four focus areas — technology development, demand creation, pilot projects and charging infrastructure for building awareness and increasing utilisation of eco-friendly vehicles.
NEMMP 2020 projects sales of 6-7 million units of electric vehicles and a resultant fossil fuel savings of 2.2-2.5 million tonnes.