India’s cabinet has approved a plan to spend 109 billion rupees ($1.3 billion) on incentives for the adoption of electric vehicles, as the country aims to reduce pollution and switch to cleaner fuels.
The PM Electric Drive Revolution in Innovative Vehicle Enhancement programme, or PM E-DRIVE, will provide subsidies worth Rs 36.79 billion for electric two-wheelers, electric three-wheelers, electric ambulances and electric trucks, Information Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said at a press conference on Wednesday.
Electric vehicle adoption is still low in India, but is increasing as the government promotes clean energy and offers incentives to companies to manufacture vehicles and components in the country.
According to a government statement, for the first time, Rs 5 billion will be allocated for the deployment of e-ambulances under the programme.
Replacement of trucks – a major source of air pollution in the country – will be encouraged with an outlay of Rs. 5 billion for e-trucks. Additional subsidies will be given in exchange for scrapping old trucks.
It was not immediately clear whether the scheme also applies to cars.
The government said it has also set aside Rs 43.91 billion for public transport operators to purchase 14,028 electric buses.
India’s Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday urged automakers to set up car scrapping centres to remove polluting vehicles from the roads, saying this could boost vehicle sales by 18-20 percent.
Last year, 4.2 million cars were sold in India, but less than two percent of them were electric. However, the government wants to increase this percentage to 30 percent by 2030.
The new plan also focuses on improving the country’s charging infrastructure and encouraging the testing of new technologies.
The main objective of the scheme “is to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles by providing upfront incentives for their purchase, and by facilitating the deployment of essential electric vehicle charging infrastructure,” the government said.
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