India’s intentions regarding EVs has become clear over the past two years. With an ambitious target to achieve electric transition in transport— 70% of all commercial cars, 30% of private cars, 40% of buses, and 80% of two-wheeler and three-wheeler sales in 2030, in view, the Indian government has sought to aggressively push for increased adoption and manufacturing. To resolve one of the big bottlenecks of charging reliability, the centre has sought to expand the network of charging infrastructure through two phases of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India. While FAME-I was active from 2015 to 2019, FAME-II, currently ongoing, started in 2019 and is due to continue to 2022. Under FAME II, the Centre has allocated Rs.10,000 Cr ($1.4 Bn) in that timeframe to support 10 Lakh two-wheelers, 5 lakh three-wheelers, 55,000 four-wheelers, and 7,000 buses that operate on lithium-ion batteries and other electric power-trains.
The Department of Heavy Industry (DHI), tasked with putting in place a robust national charging network, recently released that it had installed a total of 3,385 charging stations around the world with Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat leading the way. DHI’s data further reveals a seven-fold increase in the number of charging stations installed during the two years of FAME-II (2,877) compared to installations during the entire four-year timeframe of FAME-II (408).
