The government has extended the validity of second phase of the FAME-II program for all approved electric vehicle models.

The validity has been extended by three months and up to December 31, 2020.

The extension comes to effect from October 1, 2020.

The program is the expanded version of FAME India I, which was launched on April 1, 2015, with a total outlay of ₹8.95 billion.

In March 2019, the Union Cabinet approved the proposal to implement the second phase of the program aimed towards the promotion of electric mobility in the country.

Moreover, the central government planned an outlay of ₹5 billion for the second phase of the FAME program to propel EV adoption on a bigger scale. The program, with a total budget of ₹100 billion, was expected to be deployed over three years with effect from April 1, 2019.

The EV industry sold 156,000 electric vehicles in the financial year 2019-20. According to SMEV, the sale of electric vehicles in India increased by 20% in 2019-20, mainly driven by rising sales of two-wheelers.

Recently, the government said that it had provided a demand incentive of ₹950 million towards 27,201 electric vehicles until September 10, 2020.

Apart from this, 5,595 electric buses had been approved for several states and city transport undertakings under the FAME II program. This also includes a government incentive of ₹28 billion.

In January 2020, the Department of Heavy Industries had approved 2,636 electric vehicle charging stations in 62 cities across 24 states and union territories under the second phase of the FAME India program.