On June 25, 2021, the Department of Heavy Industries, Ministry of heavy industries and public enterprises(MoHI&PE), extended the government’s (govt) flagship Electric Vehicles (EV) promotion scheme, ‘FAME India Phase II’ (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India Phase II) for 2 years till March 2024.
Causes behind Extension:
i.FAME India Phase II scheme was approved by the government in April 2019 with an outlay of Rs 10,000 Crore for a period of 3 years up to 31 March 2022.
ii.Funds utilisation: As only 5 percent/Rs 492 crore is spent out of the Rs 10,000 crore till March 2021, the scheme is extended to utilise the allocated funds.
iii.Behind target: As per the FAME-II website, only 78,000 EVs in total have been sold against the target of 1 million electric 2-wheelers, 500,000 3-wheelers, 55,000 cars and 7,000 buses. Since the project has fallen behind its targets now extended to meet it.
Note – No changes were made in the financial allocation of the scheme.
Recent Modifications over FAME Phase II:
i.Earlier in June 2021, the MoHI&PE made partial modifications over Phase II of the FAME India scheme for aggregation of electric 3-wheelers and buses via state-run Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL). Click here to know more
- The MoHI&PE has also mandated EESL to procure 300,000 electric 3-wheelers for use by different authorities.
ii.Under the FAME-II scheme, to boost the adoption of EV in India, the government made a 50 percent increase in subsidy of an electric 2-wheeler from Rs 10,000 per kilowatt-hour to Rs 15,000 per kilowatt-hour.
iii.The cap on maximum available subsidy on the total price of the vehicle was also increased by the govt to 40 percent from the earlier cap of 20 percent.
iv.The Gujarat govt’s EV policy, coupled with FAME-II, announced a 25 percent capital subsidy of up to Rs 10 lakh per station on equipment for the first 250 commercial public EV charging stations.
Note – Phase I of the FAME India scheme was started in the financial year 2015-2016.
Recent Related News:
‘Global EV Outlook 2021’ – the recently released Annual Report of the International Energy Agency (IEA) has stated that the sale of Electric Vehicles (EVs) will be more than 30% of new vehicle sales in India by 2030.
About Ministry of heavy industries and public enterprises(MoHI&PE):
Union Minister – Prakash Javadekar
Minister of State – Arjun Ram Meghwal
