Mumbai
Auto industry has welcomed that the Union Government's step to modify India's Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (FAME) Phase II scheme by increasing incentives for electric two-wheelers and allotting the electric three-wheelers and electric buses component of the FAME II scheme to the state-run Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL). “We welcome the govts continued support to EVs. Sustainable mobility solutions are very important for the future and TVS is investing significantly behind this. The improved incentives for electric two wheelers will increase penetration and encourage further indigenous investments in future technology," said Sudarshan Venu, Joint Managing Director, TVS Motor Company.
As per the modification in FAME Phase II rules, the Department of Heavy Industries (DHI) has increased the demand incentives by 50 percent for the electric two-wheeler (2Ws). Hence, the demand incentives for electric 2Ws have been increased to Rs 15,000 per KWh from the earlier uniform subsidy of Rs 10,000 per KWh for all EVs and hybrids, except buses. Under this new modification, DHI has capped incentives for electric 2Ws at 40 percent of the cost of vehicles, up from 20 percent earlier. Nagesh Basavanhalli, MD & Group CEO, Greaves Cotton Limited, said, "The new and revised FAME II incentive policy announcement by the government is encouraging which will make electric vehicles more affordable and accessible and further boost the adoption of electric vehicles especially electric 2-wheelers and 3-wheelers in the country. With people becoming more health and environment conscious post pandemic and switching to personal mobility solutions, this announcement will increase the penetration level of electric scooters as well as e-rickshaws."
According to DHI, aggregation will be the key method for bringing the upfront cost of electric three-wheeler (3W) vehicles at an affordable level and at par with ICE 3-Wheelers. For this, EESL will aggregate demand for 3 lakh electric 3Ws for multiple user segments. For electric buses, 4-million plus cities (such as Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Surat, and Pune) will be targeted. EESL will go for aggregation of demand in these 9 cities for remaining E-buses under the Scheme on OPEX basis.
Uday Narang, Chairman, Omega Seiki Mobility, commented, “Electric vehicles (EVs) are costlier than traditional vehicles with internal combustion engines (ICE). This revolutionary step by the Government to subsidise electric three-wheelers, two-wheelers, passenger vehicles and buses will provide the much-needed impetus in faster adoption, thus helping greatly in building up the ecosystem of EV’s in India. We at Omega Seiki Mobility strongly support this initiative. It is a major incentive for Make-in-India local manufacturers like us, enabling us to bring more and more EVs of various segments to the country. This will notably make India a significant player in the EV Industry.”
Launched in April 2019, the Rs 100 billion FAME-II scheme will be over by 2022. Reportedly only 5% of the allocated amount has been spent so far. The FAME-II scheme, which comes under the National Mission for Clean Mobility, aims to generate demand for hybrid and electric vehicle by promoting electric buses, e-four-wheeler passenger cars (including strong hybrid), e-three-wheelers and e-two-wheelers. So far, only 76,008 vehicles have been sold under the scheme.
By: Rakesh Rao
Also
Read:
Comments