Ola Registration Delays Cast Cloud Over Subsidy Amount

Subsidy under the PM E-DRIVE scheme can only be claimed after the vehicle is registered

- Manas Pimpalkhare

Ola Electric Mobility Ltd stands to lose out on government subsidies for electric vehicles if it fails to register more than 16,000 two-wheelers sold in February by the end of this financial year. The benefit can be claimed by the automaker only after the vehicle is registered, according to the guidelines of the scheme.

The company informed the stock exchanges last month that its vehicle sales for February would not be accurately reflected on Vahan, the government website that tracks daily new vehicle registrations, because it was renegotiating contracts with registration service providers.

Since then, there's been no update from the company on whether the renegotiations have concluded and one of the registration agencies has taken the company to bankruptcy court.

Ola Electric registered 8,651 electric two-wheelers in February, according to data on Vahan. That's just over a third of the over 25,000 units that the company said it sold in February, a shortfall that could halve the benefits it gets for each two-wheeler sold under the government's flagship EV subsidy scheme if their registration isn't completed by the end of March.