Ather Energy Decides To Bundle Chargers, Plan Refunds To Customer Amid FAME II Scheme Changes

Ather Energy has decided to bundle chargers with all electric two-wheelers it sells along with deciding to refund the invoiced amount of chargers bought by customers before April 12, 2023.

What Happened? Ather Energy, Ola Electric, Hero MotoCorp, and TVS Motor decided to refund their customers for EV charger costs after the Centre halted incentives under the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME) II scheme for EV makers charging customers for the charging units accompanying their electric scooters.

Ather Energy stated that they have engaged in discussions with the Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI) over the past few weeks regarding including chargers with the purchase of an EV scooter. The company mentioned, “While there is no legal compliance requirement to bundle chargers, after discussions with MHI and in the longer interest of the EV ecosystem, we recently made the change to bundle the charger with the vehicle.”

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As for refunds for customers who purchased chargers separately before April 12, Ather Energy announced that they will send emails to eligible customers within the next two weeks.

As reported by ET, Ather plans to refund a sum of ₹140 crore to 95,000 customers who bought the Ather 450X electric two-wheeler model. Additionally, the MHI will recover ₹25 crore from Ather for the diminished battery capacity resulting from not purchasing the upgraded software.

Government sources also confirmed that TVS would refund ₹15.61 crore to 87,000 customers, Hero MotoCorp will return ₹2.23 crore to 1,100 customers.

Earlier in the week, Ola Electric informed the Centre that it would reimburse approximately ₹130 crore to nearly 100,000 customers who purchased its S1 Pro electric scooter before March 30, 2023.

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