Context

In a bid to give a further push to clean mobility in Road Transport Sector, the government has sanctioned 2636 charging stations in 62 cities across 24 States/UTs under FAME India (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles in India) scheme phase II.

About

What is FAME India Scheme?

• The FAME India (Faster Adoption and Manufacture of (Hybrid and) Electric Vehicles) Scheme, launched in 2015, is an incentive scheme for the promotion of electric and hybrid vehicles in the country.
• The scheme aims to promote electric mobility and the scheme gives financial incentives for enhancing electric vehicle production and creation of electric transportation infrastructure.
• The incentives are provided in the form of subsidies to manufactures of electric vehicles and infrastructure providers of electric vehicles.
• FAME India is a part of the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan. Main thrust of FAME is to encourage electric vehicles by providing subsidies. 

Phase-I of the Scheme:

• The Phase-I of this Scheme was initially launched for a period of 2 years, commencing from 1^stApril 2015, which was subsequently extended from time to time and the last extension was allowed up to 31^st March 2019.
• The 1^stPhase of FAME India Scheme was implemented through four focus areas namely:
  • Demand Creation
  • Technology Platform
  • Pilot Project
  • Charging Infrastructure
• Market creation through demand incentives was aimed at incentivizing all vehicle segments i.e. 2-Wheelers, 3-Wheelers Auto, Passenger 4-Wheeler vehicles, Light Commercial Vehicles and Buses.

What’s new in the second phase?

• FAME II will cover buses with EV technology; electric, plug-in hybrid and strong hybrid four wheelers; electric three-wheelers including e-rickshaws and electric two-wheelers.
• Under the second phase of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles in India (FAME-II) scheme, 10 lakh registered electric two-wheelers with a maximum ex-factory price will be eligible to avail incentive of Rs 20,000 each.
• It will also support 5 lakh e-rickshaws having ex-factory price of up to Rs 5 lakh with an incentive of Rs 50,000 each.
• FAME-II will offer an incentive of Rs 1.5 lakh each to 35,000 electric four-wheelers with an ex-factory price of up to Rs 15 lakh, and incentive of Rs 13,000 each to 20,000 strong hybrid four-wheelers with ex-factory price of up to Rs 15 lakh.
• It will support 7,090 e-buses with an incentive of up to Rs 50 lakh each having an ex-factory price of up to Rs 2 crore

The current sanction:

• As many as 317 EV charging stations have been allotted in Maharashtra, 266 in Andhra Pradesh, 256 in Tamil Nadu, 228 in Gujarat, 205 in Rajasthan, 207 in Uttar Pradesh, 172 in Karnataka, 159 in Madhya Pradesh, 141 in West Bengal, 138 in Telangana, 131 in Kerala, 72 in Delhi, 70 in Chandigarh, 50 in Haryana, 40 in Meghalaya, 37 in Bihar, 29 in Sikkim, 25 each in Jammu & Kashmir and Chhattisgarh, 20 in Assam, 18 in Odisha and 10 each in Uttarakhand, Puducherry and Himachal Pradesh. 

Benefits of using Electric Vehicles:

Though there are numerous benefits of using electric vehicles, the major are divided on the basis of environment and economy:

• Environment: Using electric vehicles (EVs) can significantly contribute in achieving the target of “Paris climate agreement”. EVs are carbon dioxide neutral as there is no direct emission from the vehicle. 
• Economy: EVs, more efficiently help in saving money of government, which can be utilized in other productive work. Effective adoption of electric and shared vehicles could help the economy save more than $60 billion in diesel and petrol along with cutting down as much as 1 gigatonne (GT) of carbon emissions, most probably by 2030.