The Ministry of Heavy Industries introduced the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles in India Phase II (FAME India Phase II) Scheme with a budgetary support of Rs 10,000 crore, spanning five years, starting from April 01, 2019.
This phase is prioritising the electrification of public and shared transportation, aiming to encourage the adoption of 7,090 eBuses, 5 lakh e-3 Wheelers, 55,000 e-4 Wheeler Passenger Cars, and 10 lakh e-2 Wheelers through demand incentives, and further supports the establishment of charging infrastructure.
Since its initiation, FAME India Phase-II has facilitated the sale of approximately 7,40,722 electric two-wheelers as of 20th July, 2023. Additionally, the Ministry sanctioned 6,315 electric buses to 65 cities/ STUs/ State Govt. entities for intracity operations. Notably, there is currently no proposal to launch FAME-III in the Ministry of Heavy Industries.
Despite the scheme's success, the Ministry of Heavy Industries has received seventeen complaints regarding alleged misappropriation of subsidies by some electric vehicle manufacturers. These complaints pertain to the violation of Phased Manufacturing Programme (PMP) guidelines under the scheme. In response, the Ministry has referred all complaint cases to testing agencies for re-verification.
After thorough examination of reports concerning two OEMs, the models of these two manufacturers have been suspended from the FAME scheme.
Moreover, the processing of their pending claims has been halted until they provide sufficient evidence of compliance with PMP timelines.
