Bought a TVS iQube recently? Here’s how much you get as a refund

If you purchased the TVS iQube electric scooter in the past year, you are most likely eligible for a refund from TVS Motor Company. Under the recently announced goodwill benefit scheme, customers who paid more than the FAME threshold will get an average of ₹1,700 per vehicle as a refund. The development was confirmed by KN Radhakrishnan, Director and CEO - TVS Motor Company, during a call with analysts recently.

TVS Motor Company proactively announced the refund earlier this week in light of issues related to FAME II compliance were brought to light. The two-wheeler giant iterated that the company has fully complied with all requirements laid down under the FAME policy documents and CMVR. The company said that the off-board chargers were separately billed due to the ambiguity in the interpretation of the policy. This drove the cost of the vehicle to over ₹1.50 lakh (ex-factory), which is more than the eligibility criteria to receive the FAME II subsidy. TVS is reaching out to customers eligible for the refund and should complete the process over the next two or four weeks.

TVS introduced the updated iQube and iQube S in May last year and the model has received strong demand with sales numbers climbing month after month

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TVS introduced the updated iQube and iQube S in May last year and the model has received strong demand with sales numbers climbing month after month

Speaking to analysts, KN Radhakrishnan said, “In order to improve the customer choices on charging time, we gave off-board chargers from May’22 when we launched our current variants of TVS iQube. Due to ambiguity in the interpretation, effective Apr’23 we offer a charger as part of the overall price of the vehicle. In some of the cities, our prices including the charger are within the threshold limit specified by FAME. In some cities or specific models, we are slightly higher than the threshold limit of FAME. The average refund is around Rs.1,700/vehicle."

In Bengaluru, the TVS iQube retails at an ex-showroom price of ₹1.57 lakh for the standard variant, while the iQube S is priced at ₹1.59 lakh. Both variants get a subsidy of ₹51,000 each, which helps bring the total on-road cost of the vehicle to ₹1.12 lakh (Standard) and ₹1.20 lakh (S). It’s unclear if these prices will see a revision anytime soon.

Not just TVS but other EV players including Ather Energy, Ola Electric and Hero MotoCorp’s Vida will be refunding the charger cost to customers. Ola is expected to issue a refund of about ₹130 crore while Ather and Vida have announced plans to do the same without disclosing the cost impact. That said, both players also announced price cuts on the 450X and V1 Plus and Pro respectively. That TVS iQube still remains one of the more accessible electric scooters in the segment at the moment.