No plans of rolling out FAME III incentive scheme, says Ministry of Heavy Industries

Amid slowing growth of electric vehicles, the Ministry of Heavy Industries has stated that it has no proposal to launch the FAME III scheme at present. 

This information was shared by the Minister of State for Heavy Industries,  Krishan Pal Gurjar in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. 

Post rationalisation of subsidies in May, the sale of electric two-wheelers had already witnessed a significant fall in growth in June and with vehicle prices moving up again, there is a fear that the transition to 100 percent electric vehicles for two and three-wheelers may take longer than anticipated. 

The Ministry of Heavy Industries had formulated the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles in India Phase II (FAME India Phase II) Scheme for a period of five years commencing from April 01, 2019, with a total budgetary support of Rs 10,000 crore.

This phase mainly focused on supporting the electrification of public and shared transportation, and had aims to support demand incentive for 7090 e-buses, 5 lakh e-3 Wheelers, 55,000 e-4 Wheeler Passenger Cars, and 10 lakh e-2 Wheelers. In addition, the creation of charging infrastructure is also supported under the Scheme.

So far, under the phase-II of FAME India Scheme, about 7,40,722 electric two-wheelers have been sold as on 20.07.2023. Further, the Ministry of Heavy Industries has sanctioned 6315 electric buses to 65 cities/STUs/State Govt. entities for intracity operations, stated a press note from PIB.

There are reports that the government has begun working on the third phase of FAME III, which is likely to include hydrogen-powered vehicles, additional support for electric three-wheelers, and a curtailed version for two-wheelers.

On misappropriation of subsidies, the press note elaborated that the Ministry of Heavy Industries had received seventeen complaints regarding the same, and they were mainly related to the violation of Phased Manufacturing Programme (PMP) guidelines under FAME India Scheme Phase-II.

The Government has referred all the complaint cases to the testing agencies for re-verification.

After examination of reports in respect of two OEMs, the models of these two OEMs have been suspended from the FAME scheme, the note explained without naming the companies.  

Further, the processing of their pending claims has been stopped till they submit sufficient evidence to show their compliance with PMP timelines - the note added.