The Indian Cabinet has approved a plan to spend Rs. 109 billion ($1.3 billion) to incentivize the adoption of electric vehicles to curb pollution and shift to cleaner fuels.
The PM Electric Drive Revolution in Innovative Vehicle Enhancement (PM E-DRIVE) scheme will provide subsidy worth Rs. Investments in electric two-wheelers, electric three-wheelers, electric ambulances and electric trucks stand at $36.79 billion, Information Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said at a press conference on Wednesday.
Adoption of electric vehicles in India remains low but is rising as the government promotes clean energy and encourages companies to produce vehicles and components in the country.
First, Rs. According to a government statement, the plan will allocate $5 billion to deploy electronic ambulances.
The replacement of trucks, a major source of air pollution in the country, will be given an incentive of Rs. $5 billion for electric trucks. There will be additional subsidies for scrapping old trucks.
It’s unclear whether the plan also applies to cars.
The government said it has also allocated Rs. 43.91 billion yuan will be used by public transportation agencies to purchase 14,028 electric buses.
India’s Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday urged automakers to set up vehicle scrapping centers to remove polluting vehicles from the roads, adding that the move could increase vehicle sales by 18% to 20%.
Electric models accounted for less than 2% of the 4.2 million cars sold in India last year, but the government hopes to increase this to 30% by 2030.
The new plan will also focus on improving domestic charging infrastructure and promoting testing of new technologies.
The government says the main purpose of the scheme “is to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles by providing upfront incentives for purchase and facilitating the establishment of the necessary charging infrastructure for electric vehicles”.
© Thomson Reuters 2024
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