The Union Cabinet chaired by the Indian Prime Minister has approved a new initiative, namely – the PM Electric Drive Revolution in Innovative Vehicle Enhancement (PM E-Drive) Scheme, for the next two years with an outlay of ₹10,900 crore and ₹3,435.33 crore of Payment Security Mechanism (PSM) under the PM-eBus Sewa initiative. This action has been taken to seek to electrify the country’s fleet of vehicles. The scheme has provision of ₹3,679 crore subsidy for the demand side involving electric two-wheelers, three-wheelers, ambulances, trucks and other future electric vehicles EVs. The government asserts that the scheme will subsidise 2.479 million electric two-wheelers, 316,000 electric three-wheelers, and 14,028 electric buses.
The Union Ministry of Heavy Industries will roll out the PM E-Drive scheme, under which e-vouchers will be extended to prospective buyers and manufacturers and will be available on a specially designed online portal. The government has provided ₹4,391 crore to acquire 14,028 electric buses for public transport agencies.
CESL has been assigned the responsibility to aggregate demand for electric buses in nine High Population Cities (H1) with the population of more than 4 million people: Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Surat, Bangalore, Pune, and Hyderabad. The scheme also involves assistance to intercity/ interstate electric buses in consultations with the state governments. Adherence to rules outlining the process of scrapping old vehicles will be used as a filter while prioritizing cities and states.
For addressing range concerns for electric vehicle consumers, there is ₹2,000 crore for the establishment of 22,100 fast chargers for electric four-wheelers, 1,800 for electric buses, and 48,400 for electric two & three-wheelers. In addition, ₹500 crore will be provided to incentivize early adoption of electric trucks, and ₹780 crore will be utilised for the transformation of testing agencies in the EV ecosystem. The PM-eBus Sewa scheme seeks to put 10,000 air-conditioned electric buses in tier-2 and tier-3 cities on the PPP mode.
Check here for the latest updates in Hindi!