The Union Cabinet has cleared Rs 10,000-crore programme under the FAME-II scheme to be implemented over a period of three years with effect from April 1, 2019!!!

Happy Fools Day yo petrol heads!

Through the scheme, the government plans to to support 10 lakh electric 2-wheelers,
5 lakh 3-wheelers, 55,000 cars and 7,000 buses.

The idea behind this… scheme is to popularize electric cars, and slowly make the buyer move away from petrol and diesel cars. India is an importer of oil, and this makes up the bulk of the country’s imports, wasting precious foreign exchange in the process.

India also has a major air pollution problem in most cities, and this can be addressed to a certain extent by converting the entire vehicle population of India into electric vehicles.

Electric cars, which can use electricity from clean sources like Solar & Wind power plants. It will also environmentally cleaner than petrol and diesel cars.

Solar & Wind power plants are very cheap to setup having multiple land use (eg agricultural land having solar & wind plants on them) and can be setup within a very short span of time eg a year.

The Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV) estimates the EV sales to more than double to around 2 lakh units by 2020.

Policy (final policy may not include some of the following):

• Tax on ICE Vehicles between f Rs 500-Rs 25,000.

Subsidy of:

• Rs 25,000 for an electric two-wheeler,
• Rs 40,000 for electric three-wheeler and
• Rs 50,000 for an electric car in the first year of the implementation.
• 55,000 electric cars will be offered a subsidy of up to Rs 2.5 lakh
• 20,000 hybrid cars will be offered a subsidy of Rs 20,000.

Setting up of following charging infrastructure:

• 2700 charging stations will be set up in metros
• other million plus in:
  • cities,
  • smart cities and
  • cities of hilly States across India
• At least one charging station in a grid of 3 km x 3 km
• Establishment of charging stations on major Highways connecting major cities
• Highways charging stations will be established on both sides of the road at an interval of 25 km each.