India’s electric mobility revolution seems to gather pace with every passing day. We say that because off late an increasing number of states across the country have announced their individual EV policies. Somewhere in the middle of all the state EV policies, the central government also made some updates to the FAME 2 scheme in order to further boost the adoption of EVs, especially electric two-wheelers, e three-wheelers, and electric buses. Anyway, there has been some more movement in regards to FAME II.
As on July 6, as many as 350 new EV charging stations have been installed and were functional across the country under the FAME II (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and EV) scheme, the Parliament was informed on July 20. The chargers for electric vehicles have been installed in cities such as Chandigarh (48), Delhi (94), Jaipur (49), Ranchi (29), and Agra (10) under the purview of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (FAME) India Scheme.
Krishan Pal Gurjar, Minister of State for Heavy Industries, also informed the Parliament that his Department had sanctioned about 520 charging stations/ infrastructure worth Rs 43.4 crore under Phase-I of FAME India Scheme. Furthermore, it has sanctioned 2,877 EV charging stations amounting to Rs 500 crore across 68 cities in India.
Sharing details of the FAME Scheme, the minister added that a total of 3,61,000 electric vehicles have been incentivised to the tune of Rs 600 crore, as of July 9, 2021, since the EV-adoption policy was initiated in April 2015.
According to the minister, 862 electric buses, amounting to demand incentive of about Rs 492 crore, have been deployed, as of June 30, 2021. Phase-II of FAME India Scheme, which came into effect from April 1, 2019, and extends up to March 31, 2024, has a total budgetary support of Rs 10,000 crores.
This phase focusses on supporting electrification of public and shared transportation and aims to support, through subsidies, approximately 7,000 electric buses, 5,00,000 electric three-wheelers, 55,000 electric passenger cars and 10,00,000 electric two-wheelers. In addition, creation of charging infrastructure is also being supported to address the issue of range anxiety among users of electric vehicles.