India Okays $1.4 Billion Plan to Boost Electrification

India’s central government has approved a scheme to spend 99 billion rupees ($1.4 billion) over three years on incentives to jump-start demand for hybrid and all-electric vehicles, Reuters reports.

The plan is dubbed Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles, or FAME). Subsidies would range in value according to battery capacity.

FAME incentives will be available only for vehicles that cost less than 1.5 million rupees ($21,200), according to Reuters. It says the initiative will cover scooters, two-wheelers, three-wheelers and buses as well as cars.

Last year India declared it would require that all new vehicles sold in the country be electrically powered by 2030. Prime Minister Narendra Modi later narrowed that target to 30%, after carmakers described the goal as too ambitious.

Skeptics say meeting even the latter objective is unlikely, citing India’s lack of a charging infrastructure and supply base for components to support local production of hybrids and EVs.

Price is a big hurdle too. The average EV in India today costs about 1 million rupees ($14,100), Reuters says. That’s four times the price of an entry-level piston-powered car.