VISAKHAPATNAM:The city will soon witness eco-friendly electric/solar vehicles zooming on its roads, thanks to the Union government’s FAME-India scheme.
With a view to promote environment-friendly transport system, the Central government has recently launched eco-friendly transport scheme, FAME-India (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles in India) under which subsidy would be offered on two-wheelers, three-wheelers, cars, buses and hybrid retro fitment in select smart cities across the country. To qualify for the demand incentives, the vehicles should meet certain technical criteria.
Following this, automobile experts hope that eco-friendly vehicles (EVs) would draw good response from the people of Vizag, particularly professionals, for incentives to be offered on electric and hybrid vehicles will be up to Rs 29,000 for two-wheelers and Rs 1.38 lakh for four-wheelers.
The Government of India, as a part of the National Mission for Electric Mobility (NMEM), launched FAME-India and allocated Rs 795 crore for the present and next financial years. Under the scheme, so to create an initial demand for market price uptake, the Ministry of Heavy Industry and Public Enterprises has decided to offer demand incentives to the buyers of EVs at the time of purchase. The incentive amount is pre-calculated under the scheme for various vehicles, technology and battery segments.
“It is really a welcoming initiative to protect the environment. However, the government should announce more incentives on the imports of various parts of hybrid vehicles and EVs to bring down the manufacturing cost of the vehicle. With the initiative, owners who have two cars will opt for an EV for city drives,” the general manager of one of the leading automobile showrooms in the city has said.
The scheme is only for a period of six years and the government has allocated funds for the first two years. After observing the results of phase one, the government may review the scheme. However, allocating Rs 260 crore in the present fiscal is not a good start. The government should instead start the scheme in a grand manner to reach the targets, he opined.
However, there is a mixed response from commuters in the city. They say that the government should give wide publicity to such schemes by targeting certain sections of professionals and car users. However, the entire scheme will depend on the range of the car and the battery durability, they added.
“Environment-friendly vehicles are good for city drives. According to my knowledge, Reva is assured to cover a distance of up to 150 km with a single charge, since the durability of battery depends on traffic as well. Though it is just the first initiative, the traditional vehicles will be replaced with EVs and solar powered vehicles in the coming days,” said VN Sukumar, technical manager (electrical) of a four-wheeler workshop in the city.
The demand incentive will be available for buyers in the form of an upfront reduced purchase price to enable wider adoption.
Mild hybrid, strong hybrid, plug-in hybrid and pure electric technologies vehicles have been covered in FAME-India. Already, Maruti Suzuki and Tata Motors are expected to release their EVs into the market soon.
With the government’s new initiative, a good impact on EVs and hybrid cars may be expected.