FAME-II ups budget to Rs10,000 crore ($1.4 billion) , proposes 2,700 new charging stations

The second iteration of India’s Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles scheme – FAME II – will finally go into effect from April 1, 2019 and its allocated budget has been upped from a mere Rs895 crore under FAME-I ($290 million) to Rs10,000 crore ($1.4 billion).

The budget will subsidise the purchase of up to 10 lakh electric 2-wheelers – for private customers only, 500,000 electric 3-wheelers and 55,000 electric 4-wheelers – mainly for commercial operators, and up to 7,000 electric buses. However, FAME-II will only cover vehicles running on lithium-ion battery packs or other new technologies and leaves out vehicles powered by lead-acid batteries.

Additionally, the scheme has proposed to set up 2,700 charging stations across the country – so that there is one in every 3X3 sq. km grid – as well as earmarking charging stations for every 25km for each major national highway. The scheme has been very well received by India’s automakers and answers their calls for the government to provide incentives that push for EV adoption.

Germany to invest €60 billion in EVs, Japan to test EV batteries for power backup
Germany’s car manufacturers will invest €60 billion over the next three years in a bid to ramp up their move to manufacturing EVs and offer up to 100 electric car models to their customers. The automakers’ association – Verband der Automobilindustrie (VDA) – has said that the additional impetus is critical to the EU meeting its 2030 CO2 emissions target.

Meanwhile, Japan is looking to test using the power stored in EV batteries to supply emergency power backup to homes and home appliances during blackouts caused by natural or man-made disasters. It will tie up with Nissan for the test, which claims that fully charged EVs – presumably from its own line-up – could power a home for up to four days.

China EV sales jump 175% year-on-year, VW leads foreign carmakers’ minor share
China has posted a record 175% year-on-year jump in EV sales for January and February 2019, with 96,000 new EVs registered within the period. EVs now account for 4.8% of all vehicles sold across the country.

However, 95% of the sales come from Chinese EV manufacturers alone – led by BYD, SAIC and BAIC. Foreign EV makers, on the other hand, only managed 5% of the numbers, with Volkswagen’s share at the highest at 2%.

Incidentally, BYD is also building its second new gigafactory for li-ion EV batteries in China – whose 20 GWh annual output will make it one of the world’s largest li-ion battery factories.

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