Government EV push, FAME II ending March 31st 2024, FAME III likely in main budget in July
The FAME II scheme, with a budget outlay of Rs 10,000 crore, was introduced in 2019 for a period of three years. The scheme was targeted to support 7,000 e-buses, 5 lakh e-3 Wheelers, 55,000 e-passenger cars and 10 lakh e-two wheelers. Later another Rs 1500 crore was allotted for the scheme. As of 30th March, 15,42,452 electric vehicles have been subsidized under the scheme. It includes 13,64,929 two-wheelers, 15,71,71 three-wheelers and 20,352 four-wheelers.
Tata motors was the biggest beneficiary of FAME II for making e-3 and e-4 wheelers and Ola was the the biggest beneficiary under the for e-2-wheelers segment. A total of 221 models of electric vehicles benefitted under the FAME II scheme.
The budgeted allocation for FAME II was Rs 5,171.97 crore in the year 2023-24.
Responding to a question in the Rajya Sabha, the Ministry of Heavy Industry has said that the entire budgeted allocation under FAME II was used up in the first three years, beginning from 2019-20, falling marginally in 2022-23, but in 2023-24, there was a huge gap.
In the Interim budget of this year, finance minister has allocated Rs 2671.33 crore for FAME III scheme but details of it is likely to be announced by the new government in the main budget in July 2024. It is almost 44% cut from the allocation of FY 2023-24, but Industry expects government will hike this amount in the main budget.
To promote electric vehicles in the country the Ministry of heavy industry (MHI) has also sanctioned 6,862 e-buses for various cities, state transport
