HYDERABAD: Three years after the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises launched Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (FAME) — a scheme to subsidise the sale of Electric Vehicles (EV) — Telangana finds itself at the 10th position in the sale of EV vehicles.
Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, meanwhile, stand at fifth and sixth positions respectively.While electric vehicles dealers and operators feel that the city has a huge market potential, it is the lack of awareness among the people about subsidy available through FAME scheme that is crippling the growth says, dealers opine.
The slow growth of the eco-system to create seamless usability is also lacking, observe players in the industry. According to the data accessible on the official website of FAME, there have been 7,401 vehicles sold under the scheme which includes two-wheelers and four-wheelers.The guidelines of FAME, in its first phase which is due to end by March 31 and would be revised in the Phase II, details consumers buying EV on the subsidy — between `7,500 and `1,38,000 — on the vehicles listed under the scheme.“Though we issue the bill according to the guidelines, many people in the city do not know that there is a subsidy when one buys EV as it is known for being environmentally friendly,” said Aslam Hasan, a salesman of Hero two-wheeler EV in Charminar.
Lack of charging infra another concern
Lack of charging infrastructure is another major concern, observed Greg Moran, co-founder, Zoomcar, a self-drive car rental company. “Customers planning to go long distances are not able to rent our EVs because of inadequate charging facilities restricting our booking to customers for 8 hours,” Moran said.
A recent study sponsored by UNEP DTU partnership on Study of Electric Mobility for Hyderabad states only 7 per cent of the consumers in the city are aware of EV and government incentives on it. A staggering 54 per cent do not even know about the existence of EV or the government incentives.
Meanwhile, the ecosystem is also affected due to little to no vehicle service centres. “Many people who look to purchase EVs are facing problems owing to the number of service centres. We have to send our own experts, depending on the need, to service vehicles,” Hasan added.While Telangana is already three months late to launch a state-wide policy on EV’s, lowering road taxes would help boost the eco-system, experts claim. “Subisidisation of EV’s is nice but reducing or eliminating of road tax would promote the usage of Electric Vehicles,” said Moran.Interestingly, several buildings in the Raheja Mindspace have started to instal charging units in parking lots to promote the use of EVs in the IT corridor.