NEW DELHI: India is planning to offer up to 30% subsidy of the cost of producing electric ambulances to encourage local manufacturing, officials said.Towards this, the Centre is preparing guidelines for incentivising electric ambulance manufacturing under the PM E-DRIVE scheme, the officials said.Funds for the subsidies will be met out of a Rs 500 crore allocation under PM E-DRIVE for e-ambulance deployment, the officials said. PM E-DRIVE, launched on October 1, has a total outlay of Rs 10,900 crore for a two-year period.The performance and safety standards of e-ambulances eligible for support are being formulated by the ministries of heavy industries in consultation with the ministries of health, and road transport.”Guidelines will be finalised in consultation with the National Health Mission (NHM). Subsidies will be linked to the battery capacity in a vehicle,” a senior official told ET, adding PM E-DRIVE funds will supplement the support from NHM for these ambulances.116609770″These subsidies will be up to 30% of the electric vehicle cost to incentivise early-stage product developers,” the official added.India currently has four types of ambulances starting from two-wheelers, extending up to patient transport vehicles, basic, and advanced life support variants.Short Life”Subsidies will only be for patient transport, basic and advanced life support vehicles,” the official said.The Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI) expects the domestic industry to develop hybrid engine-powered ambulances for patient transport and EVs for larger life support ambulances.There are currently about 86,000 ambulances registered in the country. These vehicles last roughly seven years, and some 25,000 ambulances are annually procured under the National Health Mission.E-ambulances are currently operating in the US, Canada, Denmark, Germany, UK and Japan, and have a range of 150 to 320 kilometres on a full charge. The MHI has considered the experience with the running of these ambulances in these countries.