Approvals and registrations
| Approval or registration | Authority and portal | When it is needed and typical time |
|---|---|---|
| FDI approval (land-border owners only) | DPIIT and the administrative ministry, through the Foreign Investment Facilitation Portal | Before investing. 60-day decision target for stakes up to 49% in listed sectors such as advanced battery components. |
| Industrial Entrepreneur Memorandum (IEM) | DPIIT, on the National Single Window System (NSWS) | IEM Part-A acknowledgement, Part-B filing and amendments are available only on NSWS (PIB, 1 October 2025). |
| Vehicle and EV certification | Testing agencies ARAI, ICAT, NATRAX and GARC | Models and EV components are certified by these agencies. MHI is funding ₹780 crore of upgrades to their EV certification capacity. |
| Domestic value addition (DVA) certificate | MHI under the PLI-Auto DVA SOP; portal pliauto.in (agency: IFCI) | Before claiming PLI: only products with at least 50% DVA qualify. By 31 Dec 2025, 8 Champion OEMs held certificates for 94 variants. |
| SPMEPCI approval | Ministry of Heavy Industries, online application portal | Approval starts the three-year deadline to invest ₹4,150 crore and begin e-4W production. Closed: no applications came in by the October 2025 deadline, and the guidelines let MHI reopen the window only until 15 March 2026. |
| EPR under the End-of-Life Vehicles Rules 2025 | MoEFCC (S.O. 98(E), 6 January 2025) | Producers carry mandatory scrapping targets for vehicles they put on the Indian market, including vehicles put to self-use. |
| Public EV charging stations | No licence; MHI guidelines of 26 Sep 2025 for PM E-DRIVE support | Setting up charging stations needs no licence. PM E-DRIVE grants follow MHI’s charging guidelines. |
Times are shown only where a rule or a stated target fixes them. Company incorporation, GST, EPFO, ESIC and the other registrations every foreign-owned company needs are covered under incorporation and approvals and timelines.
Who does what
DPIIT administers FDI policy. It handles land-border approval cases with the administrative ministry through the FIF portal, and the IEM through NSWS. Since 1 October 2025 the IEM Part-A acknowledgement, Part-B filing and amendments are available only on NSWS.
Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI) runs the sector’s central schemes: PLI-Auto (with IFCI as project management agency and the pliauto.in portal), PLI ACC, SPMEPCI, the REPM scheme and PM E-DRIVE. It also issued the charging guidelines of 26 September 2025 and funds the testing agencies’ EV certification upgrades. See central incentives.
Testing agencies (ARAI, ICAT, NATRAX, GARC) certify vehicle models and EV components. A maker entering with imports should plan certification with one of them before the first shipment; see the set-up roadmap.
MoEFCC notified the End-of-Life Vehicles Rules 2025 (S.O. 98(E), 6 January 2025). Producers carry extended producer responsibility in the form of mandatory scrapping targets for the vehicles they put on the Indian market, including vehicles put to self-use.
CESL implements the PM e-Bus Sewa Payment Security Mechanism, and the BHEL portal publishes public charging station counts (52,718 stations, of which 16,561 have fast chargers for cars, July 2026).
Value addition: the gate to PLI
The DVA certificate is the single most important sector-specific registration for a PLI-Auto beneficiary. Only products with at least 50% domestic value addition qualify, and certification is per model or component variant. By 31 December 2025, 8 Champion OEMs held certificates for 94 variants and 10 Component Champions for 37. The DVA SOP and the pliauto.in portal set the process, with IFCI as the agency.
Note: PLI-Auto is closed to new applicants (82 approved). A new entrant cannot obtain a DVA certificate for PLI purposes, but the Phased Manufacturing Programme still applies to vehicles claiming PM E-DRIVE demand incentives.
SPMEPCI: a closed window
The Scheme to Promote Manufacturing of Electric Passenger Cars in India (SPMEPCI) offered a 15% customs duty on imported e-4W CBUs against a commitment to invest ₹4,150 crore and start production within three years. No applications came in by the October 2025 deadline, and the guidelines let MHI reopen the window only until 15 March 2026. As of 1 October 2026 it is closed with no applications received.
What to check next
- Plan certification with ARAI, ICAT, NATRAX or GARC before importing or launching a model.
- If you are a PLI-Auto approved applicant, map the DVA certification timeline for every variant you intend to claim on.
- Register EPR obligations under the End-of-Life Vehicles Rules 2025 for all vehicles you put on the market, including self-use fleets.
- File the IEM on NSWS; the older channels no longer work.
- Confirm with MHI whether any scheme window you plan to use is still open; see the incentive tracker.