The PM Electric Drive Revolution in Innovative Vehicle Enhancement (PM E-DRIVE) is a new electric vehicle (EV) subsidy scheme giving ₹10,000 for each electric 2-wheeler sold till March 2025 and ₹50,000 for electric 3-wheelers.
However, this will get reduced in half in the next financial year. For instance, the electric 3-wheeler subsidy will reduce to ₹25,000 from April 2025.
The scheme aims to achieve a 10% market share for electric 2-wheelers and a 15% market share for electric 3-wheelers by March 2026, Union Heavy Industries Minister HD Kumaraswamy said on Thursday, September 12, 2024, according to a Business Standard report.
The exclusion of electric cars from the scheme was down to the fact that they already benefit from a lower 5% GST rate, he added.
Which types of electric vehicles does the PM E-DRIVE scheme focus on?
The scheme is for electric 2-wheelers, electric 3-wheelers, e-ambulances, e-trucks. as well as other emerging EVs.
The government expects the scheme to support 24.79 lakh electric 2-wheelers, 3.16 lakh electric 3-wheelers, and 14,028 e-buses.
The government has allocated ₹4,391 crore for procuring 14,028 e-buses by STUs/public transport agencies in nine cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Surat, Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad, with first preference of allocation being given when the new e-buses are procured after scrapping old ones.
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₹500 crore has been allocated for incentivising e-trucks, with incentives given to those with a scrapping certificate from an approved vehicles scrapping centre.
The scheme allocates ₹500 crore for deploying e-ambulances.
The total outlay for the scheme will be ₹10,900 crore and this will be for a period of two years.
How does the PM E-DRIVE scheme improve EV infrastructure?
The scheme proposes to install 22,100 fast chargers for electric 4-wheelers, 1800 fast chargers for e-buses and 48,400 fast chargers for both electric 2 and 3-wheelers at a ₹2,000 crore outlay to address the range anxiety of EV buyers.
It also budgets ₹780 crore to modernize test agencies of the Ministry of Heavy Industries.
How will the incentives of the PM E-DRIVE scheme be availed?
The Ministry of Heavy Industries, which is behind the scheme introduced e-vouchers for EV buyers to avail demand incentives under the PM E-DRIVE scheme, with the scheme portal generating an Aadhaar authenticated e-Voucher for the buyer and sending the link to download the e- voucher to the registered mobile number of the buyer.
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The e-voucher will be signed by the buyer and submitted to the dealer, after which, it will be uploaded on the PM E-DRIVE portal. The signed e-voucher shall be sent to the buyer and dealer through an SMS.
Why has the new PM E-DRIVE scheme been introduced?
The new PM E-DRIVE scheme addresses shortcomings seen in the previous FAME phases, with the biggest one being companies selling mostly imported vehicles and claiming subsidies, which were originally intended for domestically produced EVs.
The government had to consequently take action to recover these misappropriated funds.
The companies which are yet to repay the improperly claimed subsidies won’t be able to join the scheme, the report quoted Kumaraswamy as saying.
“There will be conformity of production (COP) test conducted every six months,” the report quoted heavy industries secretary Kamran Rizvi as saying.
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