The Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI) has revealed that electric two-wheelers, three-wheelers and passenger vehicles have availed of Rs 5,228 crore in subsidies under the FAME-II scheme. The government body in its review of 2023 said that so far 11,53,079 electric vehicles have benefitted from subsidies under the FAME-II scheme as of December 1, 2023. The scheme was enacted in April 2019 and is set to expire on March 31, 2024.

Electric vehicle sales have picked up strongly in recent years, particularly in the two-wheeler segments. The government earlier this year reduced the subsidy on electric two-wheelers in the country as the Rs 2,000 crore allocated to the segment was almost entirely utilised. The scheme was extended following the allocation of another Rs 1,500 crore.

The passenger EV space too has picked up with many manufacturers now launching or readying EVs in the more mass-market segments. Tata, which had a first-mover advantage, earlier this year revealed that it had sold over 1 lakh EVs in India. The company had said that it had sold its last 50,000 units in just 9 months.

The MHI also revealed that various state transport and central transport utilities had ordered 3,390 electric buses under the FAME II scheme from the government agency of which 3,037 units were already plying on the road. A further 3,472 e-buses had been ordered via Convergence Energy Services Ltd. (CESL) of which 454 were already plying on roads.

The government data also revealed that so far 148 public EV charging stations had been commissioned across India. The MHI had earlier in the year set aside Rs 800 crore for the major oil corporations – Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum – to set up a network of 7,432 fast charging stations across India.