Govt rolls out ₹10,900 crore PM Electric Drive scheme

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved ₹10,900 crore ‘PM Electric Drive Revolution in Innovative Vehicle Enhancement’ (PM E-DRIVE) scheme to promote the adoption of electric vehicles by providing upfront incentives for their purchase, as well as by facilitating the establishment of essential charging infrastructure.

The scheme, proposed by the ministry of heavy industries (MHI), is for a period of two years. It includes subsidies worth ₹3,679 crore to incentivise electric two-wheelers (e-2Ws), three-wheelers (e-3Ws), e-ambulances, e-trucks and other emerging EVs. The scheme will support 24.79 lakh e-2Ws, 3.16 lakh e-3Ws, and 14,028 e-buses.

The ministry is introducing e-vouchers for EV buyers to avail demand incentives under the scheme. At the time of purchase of the EV, the scheme portal will generate an Aadhaar authenticated e-Voucher for the buyer. A link to download the e- voucher will be sent to the registered mobile number of the buyer. This e-voucher will be signed by the buyer and submitted to the dealer to avail demand incentives under the scheme.

Thereafter, the e-Voucher will also be signed by the dealer and uploaded on the PM E-DRIVE portal. The signed e-voucher will be essential for OEM to claim reimbursement of demand incentives under the scheme.

The scheme allocates ₹500 crore for the deployment of e-ambulances. The performance and safety standards of e-ambulances will be formulated in consultation with the ministry of health and family welfare, ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) and other stakeholders.

A sum of ₹4,391 crore has been provided for procurement of 14,028 e-buses by public transport agencies. The demand aggregation will be done by state-run Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL) in the nine cities with more than 40 lakh population namely Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Surat, Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad.

While allocating buses to cities and states, first preference will be given to those which are being procured after scrapping old state transport buses, through authorised scrapping centres following the MoRTH Vehicle Scrapping Scheme guidelines.

Trucks are a major contributor to air pollution. The scheme will promote the deployment of e-trucks in the country. ₹500 crore has been allocated for incentivising e-trucks. Incentives will be given to those who have a scrapping certificate from MoRTH approved vehicles scrapping centres (RVSF).

The scheme aims to address range anxiety of EV buyers by promoting the installation of electric vehicle public charging stations (EVPCS) with an outlay of ₹2,000 crore. These EVPCS shall be installed in the selected cities with high EV penetration and also on selected highways. The scheme proposes the installation of 22,100 fast chargers for electric four-wheelers, 1,800 fast chargers for e-buses and 48,400 fast chargers for e-2W/3Ws.

In view of the growing EV ecosystem in the country, the test agencies of the ministry of heavy industries will be modernised to deal with the new and emerging technologies to promote green mobility with an outlay of ₹780 crore.