Ola Electric, Okinawa, Hero Electric, fined Rs 365 crore for FAME II EV subsidy violations – Times of India

After reportedly receiving complaints alleging misappropriation of subsidies under the government’s FAME II EV scheme, the Ministry of Heavy Industries appointed testing agencies such as iCAT to investigate into the claims. As part of the investigation, the agencies randomly selected already sold and in-use EVs across the country, for which the subsidy had already been claimed. The EVs were stripped down to analyse the parts and components used to build them and check how much of the components were sourced indigenously and how much had been imported. This was followed by audits and verification of invoices to further establish local production.

With the investigations into the EV OEMs now completed, manufacturers such as Okinawa and Hero Electric, have found to be in violation of the FAME II scheme regulations, as their EVs used heavy amounts of imported components in comparison to locally produced parts. As a result, the union government has reportedly demanded a recovery of Rs 249 crore from these OEMs. Okinawa Autotech has been fines Rs 116 crore while Hero Electric has been fined 133 crore for violating the Phased Manufacturing Programme (PMP) guidelines.

Reports also suggest that Ola Electric was also found to be in violation, however, the EV manufacturer has accepted the violations and agreed to reimburse approximately Rs 130 crore for the off-board charger that was sold to customers as an accessory while purchasing an Ola S1 Pro from FY 2020 to March 20, 2023. Meanwhile, other EV OEMs such as Okaya, TVS, Jitendra New EV, Avon Cycle, Victory and Thukral has been given a clean chit for following proper adoption of FAME II scheme.