FAME III scheme nears completion, timeline yet to be announced: Union Minister

The third leg of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (FAME) scheme is in the final stage, but the timeline is not known yet.

Speaking to media persons on the sidelines of an industry event recently, Union Minister for Heavy Industries HD Kumaraswamy, noted preparation work is going on for the implementation of FAME III, and ministries have recommended how to implement the program.

The Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI) formulated the FAME scheme in 2015 to promote the adoption of electric or hybrid vehicles in India.

Phase-I of the scheme was available up to March 2019 with a budget outlay of ₹895 crore. This phase of the FAME India Scheme had four focus areas -- technological development, demand generation, pilot project and charging infrastructure components.

In the first phase of the scheme, about 2.8 lakh hybrid vehicles were supported with total demand incentives of ₹359 crore approximately. In addition, 425 electric and hybrid buses, as sanctioned under the first phase of the scheme were deployed across various cities in the country with a Government Incentive of about ₹280 Crore. The Ministry of Heavy Industries had also sanctioned about 520 Charging Stations/ Infrastructure for ₹43 crore (approx) under Phase-I.

Projects worth about Rs. 158 Crore were sanctioned for the technology development projects like the establishment of testing Infrastructure, setting up of a 'Centre of Excellence' for Advanced Research in Electrified Transportation, Battery Engineering, etc. to various organisations/institutions like Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), IIT Madras, IIT Kanpur, Non-Ferrous Material Technology Development Centre (NFTDC), Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), etc.

Based on the outcome and experience gained during Phase I and after having consultations with all stakeholders, including Industry and industry associations, the government notified Phase II for five years commencing from April 2019 with total budgetary support of ₹11,500 crore.

This phase-II mainly focused on supporting the electrification of public and shared transportation, and aimed to support through demand incentives 7,262 e-Buses, 1,55,536 e-3 Wheelers, 30,461 e-4 Wheeler Passenger Cars, and 15,50,225 e-2 Wheelers. In addition, the creation of charging infrastructure is also supported under the Scheme.

Under Phase II, as of July, claims of 16,71,606 electric vehicles for ₹6,825 crore have been submitted for reimbursement of subsidy by the EV manufacturers.

Further, 6862 electric buses were sanctioned for intra-city operations under the FAME-II Scheme. Out of 6,862 e-buses, 4,853 e-buses have been supplied till July 2024.

The ministry has also sanctioned Rs. 800 Crore as capital subsidy to the three Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) for the establishment of 7,432 electric vehicle public charging stations.

A subsidy of ₹560 crore has already been released to OMCs. Further, in March 2024, the Ministry sanctioned an additional ₹73.50 crore under FAME II to OMCs for the setup/upgradation of 980 public fast charging stations by installing new chargers across the country. A subsidy of ₹51.45 crore has already been released to OMCs.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Heavy Industries and Steel, Bhupathi Raju Srinivasa Varma in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today. (ANI)

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