Shillong, May 4: Ola Electric declared earlier this week that it will refund customers for the purchase of the charger. Other EV manufacturers have now followed suit.
After the government discovered that chargers were being billed separately, which is a violation of the FAME II guidelines, Ather Energy, TVS, and Hero MotoCorp were also ordered to refund the charger cost to buyers.
According to media reports, Ather Energy would reimburse Rs 140 crore to 95,000 consumers who bought the 450X between April 12, 2022 and April 12, 2023. TVS will refund Rs 15.61 crore to 87,000 consumers who purchased the iQube S between May 2, 2022 and March 20, 2023, while Hero MotoCorp will refund Rs 2.23 crore to 1,100 buyers who purchased the Vida V1 Plus and V1 Pro between May 2, 2022 and March 20, 2023.
EV manufacturers were investigated for allegedly underpricing their products in order to qualify for subsidies under the Faster Adoption & Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME) plan. Electric 2-wheelers costing more than Rs 1.50 lakh are not eligible for benefits under the scheme, according to the policy. Furthermore, a company cannot charge a fee for chargers or proprietary software.