Under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme tailored for manufacturers, the Ministry of Heavy Industries announced that it approved incentive claims of Rs 246 crore from Mahindra and Mahindra and Tata Motors. Out of these, Rs 104.08 crore was for Mahindra claims and Rs 142.13 crore was for Tata claims.
The ministry recently also announced that 16.15 lakh electric vehicles were incentivised in phase two of the "Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid and ) Electric Vehicles in India" scheme (better known as FAME-II scheme).
FAME-II was launched in 2019, earmarking Rs 11,500 crore to incentivise electric vehicles and infrastructure such as public EV charging stations. The heavy industries ministry said that as of October-end 2024, Rs 8,844 crore was spent, with Rs 6,577 crore on subsidies alone.
This helped the Centre incentivise a total of 16.15 lakh EVs, which included 4.27 lakh electric two-wheelers, 1.59 lakh three-wheelers, 22,548 four-wheelers, and 5,131 buses. Sanctioned as part of this scheme were also 10,985 public EV charging stations.
From FAME to E-DRIVE scheme
In October 2024, the government announced its transition from FAME to a new scheme for EVs, the PM Electric Drive Revolution in Innovative Vehicle Enhancement (PM E-DRIVE) scheme, which was launched with a financial outlay of Rs 10,900 crore for two years to cover 28.8 lakh vehicles.
The aggressive move to push electric vehicles also comes at the heel of a good year for passenger vehicle sales in India, with automakers posting a record wholesale number of 43 lakh units in 2024, up around 4.6 per cent year-on-year.
Indian auto giant Maruti Suzuki posted its highest sales in six years—around 17.91 lakh units in wholesale for the year. Hyundai Motors posted their highest-ever domestic sales, too, in the year, selling more than 6.05 lakh units.
EV makers and stakeholders meet Piyush Goyal
EV sector stakeholders, including representatives from Tata Motors, TVS, and Mercedes-Benz India, met with commerce and industry union minister Piyush Goyal on Friday regarding discussions related to EV infrastructure.
"The interaction was on the development of battery charging and swapping infrastructure," PTI quoted an industry official with knowledge of the meeting.
