New Delhi, Jul 20 (IANS): The government on Tuesday told the Lok sabha that a total of 13.34 lakh electric vehicles are in use across the country.

"India has a total of 13.34 lakh electric vehicles while the number of non-electric vehicles stood at 27.81 crore," Minister of State for Heavy Industries Krishan Pal Gurjar told the House in a written reply to a question.

He said that the Centre is taking a number of steps to promote use of electric vehicles in India. The minister, in his reply, said that the government introduced the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid and Electric Vehicles in India (FAME India) scheme in 2015 with an aim to reduce dependency on fossil fuels and address issues of vehicular emissions.

At present, Phase-II of FAME India Scheme is being implemented for a period of 5 years with effect from April 1, 2019 with a total budgetary support of Rs 10,000 crore, he added.

The government approved a Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for manufacturing of Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) in the country in order to bring down prices of battery in the country.

As per the report submitted by the minister, Delhi has highest number of electric vehicles with 1,56,393 vehicles, followed by Maharashtra with 1,16,646 electric vehicles.