IndiGlobal Bureau
The Government of India is pushing for the Faster Adoption of Electric Vehicle (FAME) in India and providing a fillip to increase and encourage the roll-out of electric buses across states in India. India has a huge potential to export lithium-ion batteries with the production-linked incentive scheme.
Several state governments have their own EV policy and have been active in the promotion of electric vehicles be it two and four wheelers and also in replacing the fuel guzzling buses. 19 states have rolled out their EV policies in the last four years with considerable success. In Assam for instance there have been 32,000 electric vehicle registrations since September, 2021.
Experts, however, say that state EV policies should be consistent with the national EV incentives. According to the Ministry of Road Transport there has been a three-fold jump in EV adoption in India in the last one year.
In the two-wheeler segment, since November last year 6,10,580 vehicles have been provided subsidy which is Rs 15,000 per kw as subsidy. The budget for FAME-2 has already been raised 10 times—from ₹1,000 crore to ₹10,000 crore now.
To improve the charging infrastructure, 22,000 petrol pumps have been identified and with three departments—heavy industries ministry, petroleum ministry and the road transport ministry working in tandem. The government plans to provide subsidy for setting up charging infrastructure at petrol pumps. Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal have laid down targets for establishing 1,00,000 charging stations each by 2024 and 2026 respectively.
Some states and UTs, including Maharashtra, Chandigarh, Punjab, and Karnataka have set separate targets for each vehicle category including two-, three- and four-wheelers.
How are states faring?
Meghalaya plans to replace the public transport buses with battery electric vehicles in a phased manner, Assam has placed an order for 100 buses, Tamil Nadu is planning to replace five percent of the buses as EV every year.
Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana have set a target to transition 100% of government vehicles to EVs in a phased manner.
In Maharashtra, starting April 2023, all government and semi- government agencies will be purchasing only electric vehicles. The Punjab EV policy targets 100 percent transition in a phased manner.
The union government has spelt out the demand and supply side incentives under FAME scheme. It is upto the states to take this further and the more proactive they are, the faster will be the adoption of electric vehicles said a senior government official.
