Heavy industries ministry bets big on public transport in new EV subsidy scheme | Mint Mediainsights.in

New Delhi: Heavy industries minister H.D. Kumaraswamy said the new electric vehicle (EV) subsidy scheme would spend most of its outlay, nearly 40%, on subsidizing public transport such as e-buses. The money will be spent on aiding state transport units and public transport agencies procure more electric buses.

The ministry has allocated nearly 40% of the total outlay of ₹10,900 crore towards e-buses.

The PM E-drive scheme will also have an outlay of ₹500 crore each for e-ambulances and e-trucks, Kumaraswamy said at a press conference on Thursday, adding that the scheme will also incentivize scrapping of road transport vehicles. The ministry is also in talks with the ministry of road transport and highways over pricing of e-trucks, officials said during the press conference.

The government has set aside ₹4,391 crore to subsidize the procurement of over 14,000 e-buses in nine cities with populations over 4 million—Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Surat, Bengaluru, Pune and Hyderabad.

Also read | Govt launches ₹10,900 cr EV subsidy scheme; fund to secure e-bus payments

While allocating these buses, preference will be given to those buses that are being procured after scrapping old state transport buses through authorized scrapping centres (RVSFs) following the ministry of road transport and highways’ Vehicle Scrapping Scheme guidelines, as per a ministry of heavy industries press release.

The ministry of heavy industries will coordinate with central agencies and state governments, as well as the ministry of road transport and highways for rolling out EV charging infrastructure on highways, and the ministry of health and family welfare for consultations about e-ambulances, officials said.

The scheme also has a ₹2,000 crore outlay for fast charging infrastructure to address range anxiety among consumers, according to a ministry of heavy industries press release from 11 September.

“All charging infrastructure will be standardized,” said Kamran Rizvi, secretary in the heavy industries ministry, at the press conference. The scheme proposes the installation of 22,100 fast chargers for electric four-wheelers, 1,800 fast chargers for e-buses and 48,400 fast chargers for electric two- and three-wheelers, as per the ministry.

“There are two components to charging infrastructure—the upstream infrastructure and the interface. We consulted with the industry and found that they have difficulties funding the upstream infrastructure, which includes the power supply. So we decided to subsidize that. We paid 80% of the cost of upstream infrastructure in the previous subsidy schemes, and this time we have promised to fund 100%,” a senior government official said on the sidelines of the briefing.

The PM E-drive scheme plugs gaps in previous subsidy schemes such as FAME and the Electric Mobility Promotion Scheme (EMPS), ministry of heavy industries officials said during the press briefing.

FAME is short for Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India.

Notably, the new scheme will use facial recognition technology enabled by the Aadhaar database to ensure that every individual purchases no more than one vehicle in every class of electric EVs at a subsidized price, a senior government official told reporters on the sidelines of the briefing.

Read more | Maharashtra leads in electric buses, Delhi is a close second: Road transport and highways ministry

“The consumer will get the vehicle at a subsidized price after the dealer creates an electronic voucher using UIDAI’s facial recognition technology. Then, both the dealer and the consumer will physically sign the voucher, and the dealer will then upload that attested copy of the voucher for the necessary parties to claim reimbursement from the government,” the senior official said. “For consumers, the scheme remains the same.”

The new scheme will subsidize electric two- and three-wheelers. For e-bikes, the government will provide a subsidy of ₹10,000 for the first year, and halve it to ₹5,000 for the second, Kumaraswamy told reporters.

The tapering of subsidies in India is aligned with the global trend of global subsidy tapering, officials said. For three-wheelers, the government will provide a subsidy of ₹50,000 for the first year and ₹25,000 for the next, while three-wheeler e-rickshaws are poised to get a subsidy of ₹25,000 for the first year and ₹12,500 for the next.

The senior government official clarified that certificates issued to manufacturers under the EMPS will be valid for the new PM E-drive scheme, and that the government is in the process of creating a new portal for the new scheme.