Phase-II of FAME India scheme focuses on electrification of public transport

Second phase of the FAME India scheme focuses on electrifying India's public and shared transport system through support of subsidies for electric vehicles such as buses, passenger cars and two-wheelers.

Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Prakash Javadekar, elaborated in a written reply in Lok Sabha that Phase-II of the FAME India scheme was implemented from April 1, 2019 for three years, with a total budgetary support of ₹10,000 crore. "This phase focuses on supporting electrification of public & shared transportation through subsidies for 7090 e-Buses, 5 lakh e-3 Wheelers, 55000 e-4 Wheeler Passenger Cars and 10 lakh e-2 Wheelers," he wrote.

Minister of State for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Arjun Ram Meghwal, in a separate reply, highlighted that under Phase-II of the scheme, 56,900 electric vehicles have been supported till March 10 this year via demand incentive of around ₹170 crore.

The FAME India scheme (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Strong) Hybrid and Electric Vehicles in India) was introduced in 2015 with an aim of supporting battery-powered vehicles so as to promote environment-friendly commute options. FAME-II is an expanded version of FAME-I which had a total outlay of ₹895 crore.

Earlier this year, the Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV) pointed out that the target of generating a sale of 10 lakh electric vehicles by March 2022 under the second phase of FAME is nowhere in sight. The EV industry body urged the government to come up with measures that could be used to fix the lag in the targets of the scheme. SMEV asked Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to either rejig the FAME-II scheme or reintroduce FAME-I.

The EV industry body had also earlier said that the preconditions and qualification criteria under the scheme made electric two-wheelers rather unaffordable for customers despite the subsidies offered.