The Prime Minister Electric Drive Revolution in Innovative Vehicle Enhancement (PM E-DRIVE) scheme that was launched with a deadline of March 2026, has been extended by another two years, till March 2028.
However, the Ministry of Finance has given the approval to the Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI) on one condition — that there will be no extra budget allocated to the extension and remaining funds out of the total outlay of ₹10,900 crore will be utilised, government sources told businessline.
Sources said that the MHI, in early July, had written to the Department of Expenditure (DoE) under the Ministry of Finance, seeking an extension of the Scheme. The reasoning behind seeking this extension was that some segments, like e-trucks and e-tmbulances, will take more time to be rolled out and the funds can be utilised in some other segments that are quickly coming out in the market.
The MHI’s letter dated July 11, 2025, said that “very few” e-Trucks are being manufactured and the condition of the phased manufacturing plan (PMP) will be slow. For e-Buses too, ₹4,391 crore for 14,028 buses was approved and operators have to order manufacturing after being selected, and therefore the target can be achieved only after deployment, which would take over 6 to 18 months, it noted.
Similarly, for e-Ambulances, it said “India does not have either hybrid or e-Ambulances available.” For Testing Agencies , it said, “procurement of equipment worth ₹780 crore through local and global tenders will require time.” Also, for EV public charging stations (EV PCS), selecting vendors and sites and setting up 72,300 PCS and ensuring operations will take time, it added.
For the electric three-wheelers (e3Ws) – e-rickshaws and e-carts – the demand has not materialised while that for e-3W L-5 category (passenger transport or goods carriage) has exceeded the forecast. Many OEMs under the e3Ws have not found the PMP feasible and have, therefore, not registered their model for PM E-DRIVE, MHI reasoned.
Under the Scheme, 2,05,392 vehicles were fixed to be supported (incentive) in the e3W L5 category with an outlay of ₹715 crore.
Hence, by reducing the total number of e3Ws and the corresponding reduction in outlay for this segment from ₹.192 crore to ₹28 crore (reduction in outlay by ₹164 crore) and increasing the number of e3Ws (L5) supported by an additional 98,616 vehicles with a corresponding increase in outlay for this segment to ₹879 crore from ₹715 crore (increase in outlay by ₹164 crore), the Scheme can be implemented within the approved amount that the MHI had requested, which is now approved by the DoE in its letter dated July 24.
As per the Scheme, 2,05,392 units of e3W L5 and the allocation of funds for its promotion was ₹715 crore when approved by the Cabinet in 2024.
“Against that the numbers can be increased to 2,97,609 vehicles now and the balance ₹614 crore can be used to incentivised L5. The total allocation may be enhanced to ₹897 crore with no additional fund requirement,” the MHI…
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