The Ministry of Heavy Industries on Friday approved 20 auto OEMs from 115 applicants under the Champion OEM Incentive Scheme of the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for the auto and auto component industry.
The approved companies include Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Ashok Leyland, Eicher Motors, Suzuki Motor Gujarat, Ford India, PCA Automobiles India, Pinnacle Mobility Solutions, Kia India, Hyundai Motor India, Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp, Piaggio Vehicles and TVS Motor Company.
Under the 'new non-automotive investor' category, applicants selected include Ola Electric Technologies, Axis Clean Mobility, Booma Innovative Transport Solutions, Elest, Hop Electric Manufacturing, and Powerhaul Vehicle.
In addition to Indian business groups, the approved candidates for the Champion OEM Incentive scheme include groups from the Republic of Korea, the United States, Japan, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands, the MHI stated.
These players will be given an incentive of up to 18% to encourage the industry to make new investments in the indigenous supply chain of Advanced Automotive Technology (AAT) products.
The scheme was open to existing automotive companies and new investors who are currently not in the automobile or auto component manufacturing business.
A total of 115 companies had applied for incentives under the scheme, which was notified on September 23 2021. Incentives under the Automotive PLI Scheme will be rolled out for five years from April 1, 2022.
According to a press release from the Ministry, the automobile PLI scheme had been a significant success in terms of response, with the government receiving investment proposals worth INR 45,016 crore from authorised applicants.
This PLI Scheme for the automotive sector (INR 25,938 crore), along with the previously announced PLI Schemes for Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) (INR 18,100 crore) and Faster Adaption of Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME) (INR 10,000 crore), will enable the country to transition from traditional fossil fuel-based automobile transportation systems to environmentally cleaner, sustainable, advanced, and more efficient Electric Vehicles (EV)-based systems, the release added.
NB: Photo is representational. Courtesy: Ashok Leyland.