FADA Report: 49.25% increase in sales of electric vehicles in 2023

According to FADA, an increase of 49.25% has been recorded in the sales of electric vehicles in India in the year 2023. FADA is the federation of ‘Federation of Automobile Dealers Association’ in India. This information was given by Minister of State for Heavy Industries Krishna Pal Gurjar in the Rajya Sabha on 2 February 2024.

Following are the category-wise details of sales of electric vehicles:

Government efforts to promote electric vehicles in the country:

• In India, the government has been making continuous efforts to promote electric vehicles. The main reason for this has been the reduction in interest rates on vehicle loans.
• The increase or decrease in interest rates on vehicle loans is linked to the increase/decrease in repo rates by the Reserve Bank of India. The repo rate remains at 6.50 percent since the last revision i.e. February 8, 2023.
• The Union Ministry of Heavy Industries has formulated the following three schemes to promote adoption of electric vehicles in the country:

Fame India Scheme:

• The Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles in India (FAME India) initiative was launched by the government with a budgetary support of Rs 10,000 crore.
• Under this, Phase-II of the FAME India Scheme has been notified for a period of five years from April 1, 2019.
• Later it was increased to Rs 11,500 crore.

PLI Scheme:

• The Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for the Automobile and Auto Component Industry was launched by the government on September 15, 2021.
• Initially approved PLI scheme for motor vehicle sector with a budgetary outlay of Rs 25,938 crore.
• In this scheme, an incentive amount of up to 18 percent is provided for electric vehicles.

National Advanced Chemical Cell Battery Storage Programme:

• The PLI scheme, ‘National Advanced Chemistry Cell Battery Storage Programme’, was approved by the government on May 12, 2021 with a budgetary outlay of Rs 18,100 crore for manufacturing of ACC in the country.
• Under this scheme, it is envisaged to establish a competitive ACC battery manufacturing system with a capacity of 50 GWh in the country. Also, the scheme also includes 5 GW per hour of innovative technologies.

Apart from the above, the Government has taken several steps to promote the use of electric vehicles in the country, which are as follows:

• GST on electric vehicles and charging stations for them has been reduced to 5 percent.
• The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has announced granting of green license plates to battery-powered vehicles and exemption from permit requirements.
• The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has issued a notification advising states to exempt electric vehicles from road tax. This will help in reducing the initial cost of electric vehicles.