India: Govt readies incentives for 7,000 E-buses, 55,000 E-cars, 1 million two-wheelers
Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Minister Prakash Javadekar said in Lok Sabha that the government had provided a demand incentive of ₹950 million (~US $12.9 million) towards 27,201 electric vehicles (EVs) until September 10, 2020.
These incentives have been provided under the second phase of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid) and Electric Vehicles (FAME) program.
Apart from this, the minister added that 5,595 electric buses had been approved for several states and city transport undertakings under the FAME II program. This also includes a government incentive of ₹28 billion (~US $380.5 million).
The minister further added that during the Phase II of the program, 2,636 EV charging stations were approved at the cost of ₹5 billion (~$67.9 million) in 62 cities across 24 states and union territories.
During the first phase of the program, the department had allocated 425 electric and hybrid buses to many cities in the country at an approximate cost of ₹2.8 billion (~US$38.05 million). The government has made a budgetary allocation of ₹6.93 billion (~US$94.17 million) for the second phase of the program for the financial year 2020-21.
The government is all set to assist with demand incentives for 7,000 electric buses, 55,000 electric cars, and one million electric two-wheelers under the second phase.
The FAME II program, with a total outlay of ₹100 billion (~US$1.36 billion) over three years from 2019-20 to 2021-22, was implemented on April 01, 2019.
Earlier, it was reported that the sale of EVs in the country went up by 20% in 2019-20. The EV industry sold 156,000 EVs in the financial year 2019-20. Out of the total, 152,000 were two-wheelers, 3,400 cars, and 600 buses, according to the Society of Manufacturers of Electric vehicles. The increase of 20% has mostly come from electric two-wheelers. However, it does not include electric rickshaws, which broadly fall under the unorganized sector with a reported sale of nearly 90,000 units.
