Include battery swapping for incentive under FAME-II scheme: FICCI

Industry chamber FICCI Friday called for inclusion of battery swapping model of charging for incentives under FAME-II scheme to help acceleration of electric mobility in India.

The Rs 10,000-crore Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME -II) envisages incentives mainly to 10 lakh registered electric two-wheelers, 5 lakh e-rickshaws and 7,090 e-buses.

The FAME-II policy announced in March 2019 was much needed but there are some elements in the policy which could be altered for better results, FICCI said in a statement.

The industry chamber further said it has recently written a letter to the Department of Heavy Industry highlighting the need to include battery swapping to be included under FAME-II to encourage use of these EVs especially in two and three-wheeler categories.

"The current guidelines of the scheme are not very clear about support for such models. Hence, the need for clarification," it said.

The FAME-II scheme also proposes incentives to 35,000 electric four-wheelers with an ex-factory price of up to Rs 15 lakh and 20,000 strong hybrid four-wheelers with ex-factory price of up to Rs 15 lakh.

However, under the scheme in three-wheeler and four wheeler segments, incentives are applicable mainly on vehicles used for public transport or registered commercial purposes.

The scheme also proposes support for setting up of charging infrastructure whereby about 2,700 charging stations will be set up in metros, other million-plus cities, smart cities and cities of hilly states across India.

FICCI said the same incentives offered to set up EV charging stations could be extended to battery swapping services companies as well.

"As the battery swapping services were not factored earlier in the scheme, this may also require for additional funding in the FAME II policy so as not to curtail the funding that is required for EV charging stations which would be needed for four-wheelers and buses etc," the industry body added.