[sri_tesla]

If you have purchased an Ola Electric scooter and shelled out anywhere between Rs 9,000 and Rs 19,000 for a charger, chances are that you will be getting your money back. The company indicated on Monday that it would refund the buyers who spent Rs 9,000 to Rs 19,000 to purchase the charger for their electric scooter. The company decided to do so after the Ministry of Heavy Industries said that Ola Electric would get the remaining subsidy cleared only when it returns the cost of the charger to the buyers.

But as per the FAME II scheme, the company would have received more subsidy had they not sold the charger separately. The government raised objections with Ola Electric, asking it to compensate the buyers who had purchased chargers separately. It also said that the subsidy given to the company will be cut if Ola Electric sticks to sell chargers separately. The company had no option but to comply. In a meeting with an official of the Ministry of Heavy Industries, the company agreed to return money to the buyers. Once the company completes the condition of returning all money to the charger buyers, the Ministry will release the remaining subsidy.

Source:
https://www.zeebiz.com/automobile/ne...subsidy-232966

"The Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) will not be taking any further action against Ola Electric, as the company announced in its letter to ARAI dated April 30, 2023 that, on their own volition, they will reimburse the price (approximately Rs. 130 crore) of the off-board charger to all customers who have bought the off-board charger as an accessory when purchasing an Ola S1Pro model scooter from FY 2019-20 until March 30, 2023", said a government official.

Hero MotoCorp, TVS Motor Company, Ather Energy and Ola Electric have been under scrutiny by Ministry of Heavy Industries following whistleblower complaints. According to the complaints, all four companies were charging customers over and above the Rs 1.5 lakh threshold under the central government's FAME scheme for availing the subsidies. The companies had earlier claimed that the additional cost was for additional software features and the off board charger. Both Ather Energy and Ola Electric have also reduced the cost of their electric scooters to meet the scheme's eligibility criteria.

Ola Electric has recently brought down the cost of their electric scooter from Rs 1.39 lakh to Rs 1.24 lakh, inclusive of the cost of charger and software features. Ola Electric is also likely to submit a duly certified statement to ARAI when all customers have received amount due to them.

Source:
https://www.cnbctv18.com/auto/ola-el...r-16540231.htm

This separate invoicing for software packs, chargers, etc... started initially by Ather Energy when they released the Ather 450X and was followed by the likes of Ola and TVS. The withholding of the subsidies is one of the reasons why Ola reduced the prices of their S1 Pro scooter. Ather went a step further and nerfed their entire scooter lineup (both 450plus and 450x) by removing all the features and bundling a useless 250W charger.

The subsidy amount was withheld from the companies for the last few months. I wonder if TVS will reimburse the charger cost for my iQube S. I was charged Rs 9,500 for the charger and it was billed separately. Based on the sales numbers of FY23, Ola is expected to receive Rs 1,000 crores, while TVS and Ather are expected to receive around Rs 400 crores each.

[ranjith_cbz]

This is a good outcome but there should be punitive actions taken on such companies who deliberately misinterpret the rules and take advantage of them. What about

1. The interest Ola earned on Rs. 130 Crs during this period? Govt should have forced Ola to pay these 130 Cr with interest. At the end of the day Ola
took an interest free loan which they were not eligible for.

2. I this 130 Cr with or without GST? What about the GST charged by Ola to customers and will they refund the GST amount charged on these
products?

[ComboCutter]

The headline is misleading and sounds like Ola is doing it out of good will. It should reflect "Ola forced to refund charger cost to customer due to FAME violations"

[MrMcqueen]

Its Good that we as customers are protected out of this. as OLA S1 Pro owner who has paid 9,000 INR (exc.GST) for charger. i have not received any such communication yet from OLA.

But Headline should also indicate that other EV Manufacturers are also guilty of doing this and are going to give refunds to their customers.

[sri_tesla]

It's not just Ola Electric. Ather Energy, TVS, and Hero Motocorp are also confirmed to refund the charger costs to the customers. Complete details below.

Ather Energy: Rs 140 crores to 95,000 customers (Ather 450X). Another Rs 25 crores will be recovered by govt for providing the reduced battery capacity to customers.

Ola Electric: Rs 130 crores to 1 lakh Ola S1 pro customers.

TVS: Rs 15.61 crores to 87,000 iQube S customers. TVS will only be refunding the amount that is above Rs 1.5 lakh FAME II limit. So, it won't be full refund of the charger. In other companies case, the price is above the limit, so they have to refund full charger amount.

Hero Motocorp: Rs 2.23 crore to 1,100 consumers for Vida Plus and Vida Pro. Hero has reduced the prices of their evs but announced these price reductions to existing customers. They are doing the refund in indirect way without naming the FAME II rules as the reason.

Sources:
https://www.livemint.com/companies/n...135808887.html

TVS announcement to stock exchanges:
https://www.bseindia.com/xml-data/co...4d8026f69d.pdf

Hero announcement to the stock exchanges:
https://www.bseindia.com/xml-data/co...fe01f688f0.pdf

[Venkatesh]

Official statement from Ola.

[toiingg]

They were caught with their hands in the cookie jar, and are now trying to proclaim their innocence and greatness pretending that they are doing so out of goodwill.

They had no change of heart, they never intended to do this till they were caught.

[sunilarkt]

Face saving exercise after duping the customers. Govt withheld their subsidy amount and asked the companies to provide costing now they are falling on the line. There should some sort of fine. Otherwise These companies will portray it like they are doing some goodwill to customers

[ranjitnair77]

It's not just Ola. Ather, Hero and TVS have all decided to refund charger costs to customers.

https://auto.hindustantimes.com/auto...171285174.html

It would have been simpler if the subsidies had been offered to all electric two wheelers with an upper cap on the subsidy amount, say Rs. 55,000 for all electric two wheelers costing over Rs. 1.4 lakhs. There is no reason why a two wheeler costing below a threshold should qualify but not those above. Such arbitrary rules will lead to creative interpretations.

[sri_tesla]

Ather's officially confirmed the refunds on their official forums.




Source:
https://forum.atherenergy.com/t/upda...hargers/136376

No company is a saint. Some companies are good at PR and some are immature and some are cunningly experienced.

Subsidies are being withheld for the last few months and all the companies are aware of this for some time. That is why Ola has reduced the prices of S1 Pro quickly which not only helped them to be eligible for subsidies but also to garner more sales. Ather also relaunched both variants at lower prices but nerfed them significantly in the process. TVS is the least affected company as their prices are already lower than the competition and now only refunding the excess amount over the FAME II limit. Hero also reduced the prices and refunding the amount for those already bought it.

The intention of the maximum price limit for the subsidy is to make sure that the consumers will have affordable models available and increase EV adoption rapidly. Now with this subsidy withholding, companies are forced to reduce the overall prices to come under the limit.

[ohaak]

Originally Posted by sri_tesla

Ather's officially confirmed the refunds on their official forums.<snip>

This is good news. I wonder how sincere Ather will be while doing this refund.

[DarthVeda]

I am unable to understand this. Ather bundled their charger with the ex-showroom price, right? You can also go for a portable charger, which costs 10-13k more. This has been case from beginning. What is the cheating that these companies did? can anyone give a ELI5 version of it.

[sunilarkt]

Originally Posted by DarthVeda

I am unable to understand this. Ather bundled their charger with the ex-showroom price, right? You can also go for a portable charger, which costs 10-13k more. This has been case from beginning. What is the cheating that these companies did? can anyone give a ELI5 version of it.

They included charger as part of FAME subsidy costing to GOVT but billed customers seperately as well. In essence they took money both from customer and goverment for the charger. When government withheld payment due to cost mismatch, they are refunding the customer.

In Ather's case it was part of accesory but they still billed seperately in FAME subsidy.

[Avikbrio]

Just after this announcement, got a call from Ather that the 450x is now available for 1.51 lakh on road in Bangalore and that it is a "limited time offer till May 7". Honestly it feels like Ather is starting to lose the plot.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by DarthVeda

What is the cheating that these companies did? can anyone give a ELI5 version of it.

Please correct me if I am wrong as I don't follow the 2-wheeler segment as closely as I do cars. Below is my understanding:

- Fame II subsidy is applicable for electric 2-wheelers costing 1.5 lakhs or below, ex-factory. It's a big deal as the subsidy is approximately 55,000 bucks.

- What a few 2-wheeler manufacturers were doing is selling the charger separately, to ensure their ex-factory remains under 1.5 lakhs (note = ex factory is different from ex showroom prices). The government thought (and rightly so) on the lines of, tomorrow car manufacturers will sell the car and bill you for 4 tyres separately to avail of subsidies below a certain price point. They said the charger has to be compulsorily calculated in the ex-factory price. I am with the government on this one.

- Ather is very smart. If you look at their pricing page, they are still charging you for software (aka Pro Pack) of the Ather 450 X separately. This Pro Pack of Rs. 30000 (primarily software), if added to the ex-factory price, will make it go over 1.5 lakhs. Am sure the government will get a wind of this too. Without the subsidy, no one will buy the Ather 450X Pro Pack.

Indian jugaad at its best.