You will get the benefit of a subsidy for the purchase of e-rickshawImage credit source: George Pachanturis/Moment/Getty Images
To encourage people to buy electric vehicles in the country, the government has announced the launch of a new subsidy scheme, the ‘PM E-Drive Scheme’. This will replace the Fame Subsidy Scheme that was in place for 9 years in the country. Now a big update has come – under this scheme, people will save Rs 10,000 on the purchase of an electric scooter. Moreover, a huge subsidy has also been announced for those who buy electric rickshaws.
Union Heavy Industries Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Thursday said that people who buy electric two-wheelers will get a maximum subsidy of up to Rs 10,000 during the first year of the PM e-Drive scheme. The government will launch this scheme very soon.
Electric rickshaw to benefit from subsidy
E-rickshaw buyers will also benefit from a subsidy of Rs 25,000 in the first year and Rs 12,500 in the second year under the PM e-Drive scheme. The Union minister said the subsidy scheme will continue for two years.
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While for category L5 (three-wheeled vehicles used for transporting goods), a subsidy of Rs 50,000 will be available in the first year and Rs 25,000 in the second year.
The subsidy will be decided based on the battery power.
HD Kumaraswamy said that under the PM e-Drive scheme for electric two-wheelers, the subsidy will be decided based on the battery power. This will be given at the rate of Rs 5,000 per kilowatt hour of power.
However, the maximum subsidy limit for each two-wheeler for the first year will be Rs 10,000. In the second year, this subsidy will be halved to Rs 2,500 per kilowatt hour and thereafter the maximum benefit will not exceed Rs 5,000.
These electric scooters are available in the market
Currently, the battery capacity of popular EVs in the market such as Ola, TVS, Ather Energy, Hero Vida (Hero MotoCorp) and Chetak Bajaj ranges between 2.88 kWh (kilowatt hours) and 4 kWh. They are priced between Rs 90,000 and Rs 1.5 lakh.
This is how you will get the benefits of the PM e-drive system
Under the scheme, an Aadhaar-authenticated e-voucher will be issued through the PM e-Drive portal. It will be duly signed by the buyer and the dealer and uploaded on the portal. The buyer will have to upload a selfie on the portal to avail the subsidy under the scheme.
Many measures have been taken in the plan to prevent misuse of government subsidies. Kamran Rizvi, Secretary, Ministry of Heavy Industries, says that we have learnt a lot from FAME-2. Therefore, production will be monitored every six months and this will tell whether everything is fine or not.
