New Delhi
The Ministry of Heavy Industries has sanctioned 7432 electric vehicle charging stations to three oil marketing companies (OMCs) under the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India (FAME India) Scheme phase-II and has also sanctioned Rs 800 crore as capital subsidy to the OMCs of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) for establishment of the EV public charging stations. Besides, 148 EV charging stations were sanctioned to other entities under this scheme. The Phase-II of FAME India scheme is based on the outcome and experience gained during Phase-I and launched after extensive consultations with all stakeholders, including industry and industry associations for a period of five years commencing from 1 April, 2019 with a total budgetary support of Rs 10,000 crore. This phase mainly focuses on supporting electrification of public and shared transportation and aims to support through demand incentive 7090 e-buses, 5 lakh e-3 wheelers, 55000 e-4 wheeler passenger cars and 10 lakh e-2 wheelers.
The FAME India scheme launched in 2015 to promote adoption of electric/ hybrid vehicles (EVs) in India, saw about 2.8 lakh EVs supported with total demand incentives of Rs 359 crore in Phase-1 of the scheme which was available up to
31 March, 2019, with budget outlay of Rs 895 crore. This phase of the scheme had four focus areas i.e. technological development, demand generation, pilot project and charging infrastructure components.
The Ministry sanctioned about 520 charging stations/ Infrastructure for about Rs 43 crore under Phase-I of FAME-India scheme. Projects worth about Rs 158 crore are sanctioned for the technology development projects like establishment of testing Infrastructure, setting up of ‘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).
The Government support is paving the way for partnerships to make EV charging more accessible through wide-spread and reliable charging infrastructure like the Tata Passenger Electric Mobility and Bharat Petroleum agreement to leverage BPCL’s widespread fuel stations network and TPEM’s insights from over 1.15 lakh Tata EVs on the Indian road. Additionally, BPCL will gather insights on charger usage to improve customer experience. This agreement between TPEM and BPCL aims to improve the overall experience for EV owners across India. Santosh Kumar, Executive Director, Retail, BPCL sees this tie-up aligning with the company’s goal to convert 7000 of its conventional retail outlets into energy stations which is a part of a comprehensive decarbonization strategy to support and prioritize sustainable initiatives.