Electric mobility: PMO steps up efforts to expand charging ecosystem

As climate change makes itself more and more felt, fossil fuels are being looked at as something that needs to be changed. In an effort to move towards something more sustainable auto companies have no doubt started moving towards the electric path. And while the road will be long and hard, it is not undoable. Here are the electric cars that are already on sale in India.

Nikita Vashisht  Moneycontrol News 

Slowly but steadily, the electric vehicles' industry is receiving support from the government which it had been demanding, with Prime Minister's Office (PMO) stepping up efforts to bring clarity in the ecosystem.

In a meeting held at the PMO, decisions regarding timely clearance for setting up of charging stations and selective subsidy rollout were taken, sources said.

"A meeting was held in the last week of January where certain decisions were approved by the PMO, like expediting installation of charging facilities at CNG and petrol station and specifying timeline within which such stations will be set up," they said.

Apart from this, the PMO has asked Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO) to give clearance for charging stations which will be chaired by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).

This is the second time when PMO has taken direct note of measures being taken to facilitate electric mobility in India.

Earlier, PMO had advised NITI Aayog and Department of Heavy Industries to formulate plan to provide cheaper batteries to car manufacturers instead of providing direct subsidy on car manufacturing.

This led to delay in roll out of second phase of Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME) scheme, which provides subsidies to e-car manufacturers. Under the first phase, subsidy up to Rs 1,87,000 are being provided.

Moneycontrol had earlier reported that the Finance Ministry had approved Rs 5,500 crore package for the second phase of the scheme including Rs 1,000 crore for setting up charging infrastructure.

Sources have further said that PMO asked all the stakeholders to increase the number of LNG stations to improve inter-state transportation even as it asked to increase number of CNG stations for intra-state transportation.

"Lastly, all the states that exempt electric vehicles from road tax will be given subsidy," sources said.

Electric vehicles' industry is hoping for clarity on roll out of FAME-II in February.

Last month, Anant Geete, Union Minister for Heavy Industries, had said that the government could finalise FAME-II by the end of February.

While presenting Interim Budget 2019, Piyush Goyal said that "India will lead the world in transport revolution through electric vehicles".

According to sources, a Cabinet note for FAME-II was to be considered by the ministers in January for its passage by February.

The sale of electric vehicles gained momentum in India after 14 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world were found to be in India. Furthermore, India’s crude oil import bill, essentially to support petrol and diesel based cars, is close to $ 81 billion putting strain on fiscal obligations of the government.