The new Rs 10,900-crore PM E-Drive initiative, which encourages charging infrastructure and provides demand incentives for electric vehicles, is set to go into effect today, October 1, according to an official declaration published in the Ministry of Heavy Industries‘ gazette. The program’s expiration date is March 31, 2026. According to the statement, incentives for electric two- and three-wheelers would be halved as of April 2025.
The PM E-Drive programme took the role of the Rs 11,500 crore Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid and) Electric Vehicle (FAME) II initiative, which ran out of funding in March. The interim Rs 778-crore Electric Mobility Promotion Scheme (EMPS) is part of the PM E-Drive and runs through September 30.
The government plans to provide demand incentives worth Rs 3,679 crore for the purchase of electric two-wheelers, three-wheelers, ambulances, and trucks, in addition to the Rs 7,171 crore it has set aside to promote the adoption of electric buses, upgrade public charging infrastructure, and upgrade testing infrastructure.
The new design is more expansive, has a higher budget, and prioritizes public transportation and charging infrastructure in comparison to the five-year FAME II project. According to the scheme, consumers who buy electric vehicles would gradually no longer receive government subsidies.
In order to ensure localization, the government implemented the Phased Manufacturing Program (PMP), which requires electric car manufacturers to source and assemble a significant amount of their components locally. OEMs had to follow PMP localization guidelines in order for the cars to be eligible for the FAME scheme incentives.
