Tata Motors will be the biggest loser when FAME-II scheme expires on March 31
The country’s largest electric vehicle (ePV) maker, Tata Motors, was the biggest beneficiary of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid and) Electric Vehicles in India (FAME) scheme. With the expiration of the scheme on March 31, it is set to be the biggest loser.
Sources told businessline that the government did not extend the FAMEII scheme because the benefits of the scheme were not widely spread. Tata Motors got the maximum benefits (for both the ebuses and ePVs) simply because it was producing the maximum number of EVs compared with companies such as Mahindra & Mahindra or MG Motor India (in the ePVs segment).
TATA’S ADVANTAGE
“It is natural for Tata Motors to draw the maximum amount of the incentives from the government because it has the maximum number of vehicles in its portfolio,” a Delhibased industry veteran said, adding that there are still very few companies that could benefit under the FAMEII scheme.
Email queries sent to Tata Motors did not elicit any response till the time of going to press.
According to sources, the company has sold around 2,200 electric buses and 15,000 ePVs (for fleet services) under the scheme, for which it has got an average of ₹20,000 per kWh for each of the buses and ₹10,000 on an average for the electric cars on a per kWh basis.
Under the FAME scheme, the company gets incentives for three of its vehicles: the Ace EV (small commercial vehicle), the ebus and XPresT (fleet cars for aggregators like BluSmart and Uber).
INCENTIVE INSIGHTS
According to the Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI), the company gets ₹2,15,000 as incentive amount on XpresT, which means the company would have benefited to the tune of ₹322.5 crore (₹2,15,000x15,000) from the scheme.
Similarly, for Ace EV, Tata Motors gets an incentive of ₹2,13,000 on each vehicle sold, which it passes on to the customers. For eBuses, even if the company gets an incentive of around ₹5 lakh hypothetically, it would have received around ₹110 crore on the 2,200 ebuses it sold.