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Government of India has notified the PM Electric Drive Revolution in Innovative Vehicle Enhancement (PM E-DRIVE) scheme on 29.09.2024. 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 donefor incentivizing sale of e-ambulances and e-trucks under the scheme. This is new initiativeof Government of India to promote the use of e-ambulances for a comfortablepatient transport. Similarly, e-trucks have also been introduced under the scheme sincetrucks are major contributors to air pollution. To avail subsidy on e-truck submissionof 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 upgradationof 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 crorehas 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.
The difference between PM E-DRIVE scheme and FAME-II scheme are as under:
| S. No. | Details | PM E-DRIVE scheme | FAME-II scheme |
| 1. | Outlay | ₹10,900 crore | ₹11,500 crore |
| 2. | Scheme Period | 2 Years available till 31.03.2026 | 5 Years i.e. 01.04.2019 to 31.03.2024 |
| 3. | New Components under Demand Incentive | E-ambulances and e-trucks have been introduced under the scheme with an outlay of ₹500 crore each. | These EV segments were not available under FAME-II scheme. |
| 4. | New Component under Grants for Creation of Capital Assets | Provision of ₹780 crore for Upgradation of Testing Agencies. | FAME-II had no support in form of Grants to Testing Agencies. |
| 5. | Aadhar based face authentication, generation of e-voucher and selfie uploading | The Scheme has a unique feature of Aadhaar based face authentication has been introduced under the scheme. Further voucher generation and uploading of selfie authenticating the sale is another unique feature of this scheme. |
There was no such provision under FAME-II. |
| 6. | Conditional incentive on furnishing Scrapping Certificate
| For e-buses, preference will be given to those states, which plan to deploy e-buses after scrapping old ICE buses.
For e-trucks, to avail subsidy, submission of a scrapping certificate of ICE trucks has been made mandatory. |
This information was given by the Minister of State for Steel and Heavy Industries, Shri Bhupathiraju Srinivasa Varma in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.
