Government of India has notified the PM Electric Drive Revolution in Innovative Vehicle Enhancement (PM E-DRIVE) scheme. The salient feature of the scheme are as under:
- Introduction of E- Vouchers: The Ministry of Heavy Industry (MHI) has introduced E-vouchers for Electric vehicle buyer to avail the demand incentive under the scheme.
- Introduction of new vehicle segments: An allocation ₹500 crore each has been done for incentivizing sale of e-ambulances and e-trucks under the scheme. This is new initiative of Government of India to promote the use of e-ambulances for a comfortable patient transport. Similarly, e-trucks have also been introduced under the scheme since trucks are major contributors to air pollution. To avail subsidy on e-truck submission of a scrapping certificate from Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) approved vehicles scrapping centres (RVSF) has been made mandatory.
- Upgradation of testing agencies: Rs. 780 Crore has been provisioned for upgradation of vehicles testing agencies.
An allocation of ₹4,391 crore has been made for deployment of 14,028 e-buses under the PM E-DRIVE Scheme. Initially, nine cities with a population of more than 40 lakh will be targeted namely Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Surat and Pune. For procurement and operation of e-buses in unique geographies, such as hilly and north-eastern states, island territories and coastal regions, a different set of guidelines may be adopted, potentially including a non-OPEX model, as suitable to support e-bus penetration. Under this scheme, e-buses have not been allocated to any city so far.
An allocation of ₹2,000 crore has been made under the PM E-DRIVE Scheme for setting up of public charging infrastructure on pan-India basis including the state of Andhra Pradesh.
Click Here to get the latest EV news and exclusive updates from EV Mechanica on WhatsApp!