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As car manufacturers draw up ambitious plans to roll out electric vehicles (EVs), the Union Ministry for Road Transport and Highways will, in the next few days, spell out the parameters defining the performance, safety and operations of alternative fuel-run vehicles.
It plans to put out a white paper that will define the norms for EVs and those that run on alternative fuels including methanol, ethanol and CNG. These will be similar to the ones formulated for conventional vehicles, and cover their maintenance and recall norms as well.
According to officials in the know and various industry sources, the Ministry is aiming at broad policies that will define the contours of the e-vehicles ecosystem. The first measure will be an EV Policy that will seek to lower the regulatory compliance requirements and offer tax sops to boost adoption.
Second leg of FAME
The second will be a financial incentive scheme that will operate under the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid and) Electric Vehicles in India (FAME) Scheme. Launched in 2015, the FAME Scheme has been extended twice till now.
“The second leg of the FAME Scheme is being finalised right now,” the sources said. Going by the March draft of the National Auto Policy, FAME will continue with incentives for public transport and restrict subsidies for private vehicles.
Further, the new scheme will introduce technical classification criteria for subsidies based on parameters such as fuel consumption, improvement, CO2 emission reduction and battery energy density.
The sources said the Centre has not taken the industry on board with the FAME-II Scheme. It is looking at a scheme for two-wheelers and commercial EVs, but not for passenger cars.
Green mobility network
The Centre is also planning an advanced and extensive pan-India green mobility infrastructure network that will cover public charging infrastructure, payment mechanisms, and so on.
The government additionally wishes to extend the testing facilities available in India so that they can look beyond conventional vehicles to include testing facilities for EVs and their sub-systems. These will be undertaken by the government and autonomous agencies such as the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) and International Centre for Automotive Technology (ICAT).
The NITI Aayog, working in tandem with various ministries, has been the main coordinate for working out an overall mechanism.
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