The subsidies worked—but their time is up. India’s FAME schemes delivered precisely what they promised: over 1.8 million electric vehicles on the road, thousands of public chargers dotting city landscapes, and a population no longer puzzled by battery-powered transport. Mission accomplished. Yet as FAME II closes its books and PM E-DRIVE takes the baton until March 2026, India faces a vastly more complex challenge than simply writing cheques to buyers. The question is no longer whether Indians will buy electric vehicles with government support, but whether the country can construct an infrastructure and regulatory framework so compelling that clean mobility becomes the rational, friction-free default choice—subsidy or no subsidy. The answer will determine whether India’s electric revolution fizzles into a policy footnote or accelerates into a self-sustaining transformation that reshapes transport, freight, and urban life across the subcontinent.
The Post-FAME Architecture: Targeting Freight and Phasing Out Open Wallets
FAME I and FAME II together deployed roughly ₹10,000 crore between 2015 and 2024, supporting electric two-wheelers, three-wheelers, buses, and cars whilst sanctioning over 9,000 public charging stations. That era has closed. The PM E-DRIVE scheme, with its ₹10,900 crore allocation running until March 2026, signals a decisive philosophical shift: tighter targeting, steeper subsidy tapers, and a pronounced pivot towards commercial and heavy-duty segments.
Private electric cars, cushioned by a favourable five per cent GST rate, have been conspicuously excluded from PM E-DRIVE’s remit. Instead, the scheme concentrates on e-two-wheelers, e-three-wheelers, trucks, ambulances, and buses—segments where market forces alone cannot yet close the cost gap. Crucially, subsidy amounts for lighter vehicles are programmed to decline over time, creating a glide path towards unassisted market viability as battery costs fall and production scales up. The freight focus is particularly striking. Heavy-duty trucks represent a mere three per cent of India’s vehicle population yet account for over a third of road transport emissions. PM E-DRIVE carves out a dedicated ₹500 crore window to support 5,600 electric trucks, with the 2026–2030 period expected to prioritise green freight corridors and logistics partnerships. This is not philanthropy; it is industrial strategy cloaked in environmental necessity.
Equally significant is the structural evolution from scheme-based interventions to standard-based governance. Production-linked incentives for batteries and automotive components run parallel to PM E-DRIVE, but policy architects are already sketching a post-2026 framework built on fleet electrification targets, zero-emission vehicle credit trading, and city-level mandates rather than open-ended central subsidies. An ICCT assessment of FAME II’s impact observes that whilst purchase subsidies were essential for closing upfront cost gaps, the next phase must prioritise regulatory certainty, charging density, and lifecycle cost parity over fiscal handouts. The 2026–2030 period will be judged not by cheque size but by system quality.
High-Power Charging Corridors: Engineering the Fifteen-Minute Highway Stop
Fast, reliable charging infrastructure—especially along highways and freight routes—constitutes the second pillar of India’s post-subsidy strategy. By mid-2025, close to 9,000 public charging stations sanctioned under FAME II were operational or under installation, supplemented by private investments from oil marketing companies, original equipment manufacturers, and charge-point operators. The 2026–2030 agenda shifts from ubiquity to precision: deploying the right chargers, at the right power levels, in the right locations.
Corridor-based planning anchored to PM E-DRIVE emphasises megawatt-scale hubs along industrial and freight routes, with high-power DC chargers rated between 150 and 350 kilowatts enabling inter-city cars and buses to complete a top-up in fifteen to twenty minutes—comparable to a conventional fuel stop. For long-haul fleets operating on tight schedules, this speed differential is not a convenience but an economic precondition for electrification.
Standardisation and interoperability are moving from aspirational to mandatory. The Bureau of Indian Standards and sector regulators are aligning India with CCS, CHAdeMO, and emerging megawatt-charging protocols whilst mandating roaming capabilities, common payment interfaces, and unified tariff transparency. This matters acutely for freight operators who cannot afford to juggle multiple apps and proprietary connectors across state boundaries. Grid readiness is the often-overlooked constraint. Fast-charging hubs impose enormous peak loads on distribution networks; corridor planning now explicitly incorporates time-of-day tariffs, battery-backed stations, solar integration, and grid upgradation capital expenditure. PM E-DRIVE’s public charging grants recognise this reality, funding not just chargers but the distribution infrastructure behind them.
The freight-electrification pivot demands its own infrastructure typology: depot-based overnight charging for return-to-base fleets and en-route high-capacity chargers in dedicated freight corridors and port-adjacent zones. Industry research suggests India’s EV charger count must grow tenfold from mid-2020s levels to support 2030 adoption targets, with a rising proportion rated above 60 kilowatts. The 2026–2030 window is when the skeleton of India’s long-distance electric network must be erected.
EV-Ready Urban Development: Designing Cities Around Clean Mobility
Excellence in electric mobility extends beyond vehicles and highways to urban planning, building codes, and retrofitting strategies. Several state and city policies have begun linking EV uptake to parking regulations, construction norms, and air-quality plans. The next evolution is embedding EV readiness into the DNA of Indian urban development between 2026 and 2030.
Revised building codes across multiple states propose mandatory EV-charging provisions: pre-wiring a proportion of parking spaces, minimum charger points per residential unit, load management systems, and fire-safety protocols for basement charging. This is critical in a nation where most car owners reside in apartment complexes rather than independent houses. Without residential charging access, EV ownership remains the preserve of the villa-dwelling minority.
Transit-oriented and neighbourhood-based charging networks are proliferating. Cities are installing chargers at metro stations, bus depots, municipal car parks, and market areas, ensuring public and shared transport fleets can charge proximate to their operational zones. For two- and three-wheelers, kerbside slow chargers and battery-swapping stations in dense commercial districts are becoming fixtures of city-level EV blueprints.
Critically, EVs are being absorbed into broader clean-air and climate frameworks rather than treated as isolated policy domains. Many Indian cities face pressure to meet National Clean Air Programme targets and climate-action commitments. Bus fleet electrification, e-rickshaw corridors, low-emission zones, and restrictions on new internal combustion engine registrations in congested areas are coalescing into comprehensive urban strategies. A 2025 policy brief on India’s EV trajectory argues that cities will be the frontline of the transition—where charger locations, parking norms, and bus-fleet choices directly determine whether EVs remain niche or become default. Between 2026 and 2030, urban development decisions will likely decide whether EV use feels seamless or frustrating for everyday users.
By 2030, India envisions electric vehicles capturing a dominant share of new two- and three-wheeler sales, a substantial portion of buses, and a meaningful footprint in freight and passenger cars. The 2015–2024 period, powered by FAME, demonstrated that subsidies plus nascent infrastructure could ignite adoption. The 2026–2030 period must now demonstrate that India can transition from expansion to excellence: a policy regime durable beyond any single scheme, high-power corridors making long-distance and freight electrification practical, and EV-ready cities where buildings, streets, and buses are designed around clean mobility. The real measure of India’s EV story will not be subsidy cheques disbursed but kilometres driven, air made cleaner, and systems built to endure.