The Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises (MHIPE)  has issued a notification to all the testing agencies under the second phase of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles in India Phase II (FAME India Phase II).

The notification is regarding the eligibility under the revised Phased Manufacturing Program (PMP) for xEV parts. For the uninitiated, xEV is the generic name for electromotive vehicles such as hybrid electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, and fuel-cell electric vehicles.

Last year, the government announced that it would set up a national mission on transformative mobility and battery storage initiatives. The Cabinet had also approved the creation of the Phased Manufacturing Program to support the development of large-scale, export-competitive integrated batteries and cell-manufacturing giga-scale projects in India. The Phased Manufacturing Program will be valid for five years until 2024 and help in localization of production across the entire electric vehicle value chain. The objective of the mission is to make technology-driven sustainable and holistic mobility solutions universal by scaling up the manufacture of these vehicles.

Under the revised program, the traction battery pack is to be assembled domestically, for which battery cells and associated thermal and battery management systems be imported.

Further, the Ministry has stated that all other parts and components other than the ones mentioned in the list below should be domestically manufactured and assembled. These xEV parts should have safety components notified by the central motor vehicle rules (CMVR) and must be tested by the testing agencies.

Under the FAME program, the government aims to achieve 100% e-mobility by 2030, striving to provide a robust ecosystem of electric mobility.

In May 2019, the Ministry had released a revised list of parts that are to be indigenized under the Phased Manufacturing Program of FAME II program. The list consisted of 20 eligible components that are used in electric vehicles across the two, three, and four-wheeled segments, which will be covered under the program.

The Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change issued a draft notification for battery waste management in March. The regulations will apply to all types of batteries as listed in the Schedule-I, regardless of their shape, volume, weight, material, and composition, or use. Under Schedule-I, the batteries have been categorized under two sections. They are primary cells or non-rechargeable batteries and secondary cells or chargeable batteries. Alkaline, aluminum-air batteries, or Grove cell, or Clark cell, or Zinc chloride battery, are categorized under primary cells. On the other hand, flow battery, Lithium-air battery, and Lithium-ion polymer battery are listed under the category of the secondary cell.