New Delhi: The much-awaited faster adoption and manufacturing of (hybrid) electric vehicles (FAME) II scheme may be soon a reality, as the Union Cabinet is likely to clear a Rs 10,000-crore plan on this respect Thursday.
According to a top official source, the much-delayed FAME-II will be for a period of three years instead of five years as envisaged earlier, and for passenger electric cars, the subsidy will be available only for taxi aggregators. “The Rs 10,000-crore support will be used for subsidies on electric busses, passenger cars to be used by taxi aggregators, three-wheelers and two-wheelers,” the source said.
“Under the Phase II of the scheme, 7,000 electric buses, of prices up to Rs 50 lakh, or 40 per cent of cost, will get subsidy, but only on the basis of operational expenditure (opex) and not capital expenditure (capex),” the source added.
In August last year, an inter-ministerial panel had finalised the roadmap for FAME II scheme with an outlay of around Rs 5,500 crore spanning over five years and subsidy support for all types of electric vehicles.
However, the amount of incentives proposed in the scheme for electric buses may further be subject to competitive bidding among original equipment manufacturers, the source said.
The FAME-II will also provide subsidy of up to Rs 50,000 for five lakh electric three-wheelers and 35,000 hybrid and electric passenger cars, which are to be used by taxi aggregators. “There will not be any subsidy for electric cars for private use,” the source said.
It is, however, expected that around 10 lakh electric two-wheelers will also get subsidy under FAME-II. “The scheme in its second phase will offer a bouquet of incentives, such as exemption from paying road tax, registration fee and parking charges for various categories of electric and strong hybrid vehicles," another source said.
The Phase II of the scheme was revamped by the expenditure finance committee in a meeting held on Monday. The incentives will also cover setting up of charging infrastructure for electric vehicles (EVs) but no target has been set for EV sales to be achieved over the five-year period of the scheme's implementation.
