Here we go again…the “cheating thread” of this Forum was closed recently and I thought it’d end there. it hasn’t unfortunately. I’ll try one more time to explain with a little more background.
Due to the global environmental situation the world is moving and has to move towards this electrification. It is a disruptive change and is shaking the foundation of mobility industry. Major portion of the new vehicles have to be build afresh. it is not easy and it is expensive. Remember the current ICE vehicle is 150years old and over so many years, it has improved and after so many years of mass production, things have become cheaper and affordable. EVs are starting now and hence they are expensive. Ather is expensive - like Nexon is, like E2O was, like Chetak is, like iQube is. This deters people from adopting them. But there is no go, we have to move towards EVs. So to help people move towards EVs, Governments across the globe provide subsidies. In India it is called by the name FAME (Faster adoption and Manufacturing of Electric vehicles).
FAME is setup in the following way
- Ex factory cost of the vehicle is what a manufacturer incurs to manufacture the vehicle (₹1,49,999 in case of Ather). This satisfies the subsidy precondition that the Ex-Factory price should be below ₹1.5L for a two wheeler.
- For every vehicle purchased by a citizen, the Government pays the manufacturer some amount depending on defined conditions (this is ₹29,000 in case of Ather).
- This subsidy is only paid to the manufacturer against an Aadhar card produced by the purchaser. GOVERNMENT WILL NOT REFUND ANYTHING TO THE PURCHASER DIRECTLY. This is how the the burden on the citizen is reduced. Without this subsidy (or with a pay now and get a refund later) the citizen may not even think of buying the vehicle.
So there is no question of Ather retaining the subsidy to themselves and not passing it on to the customer…that’s how the process is. I don’t see any wrong trade practice when you’re getting a tax paid invoice for every rupee that you’ve paid.
moving further with the pricing…GST, dealer margin, Logistics, charger, Discounts if any, are all applied to the ex-factory price which brings the ex showroom price to ₹1,39,990 in Bengaluru and ₹1,27,916 in Delhi.
Now the performance pack - it’s an additional thing that the purchaser wishes to have and he’s ready to pay ₹19,010 for that added performance. Basically there is only one vehicle manufactured by Ather (and homologated by ARAI) at their factory and that is the 450+. For the X factor customer is paying more.
Below is the price breakup for you in excel for better understanding.
The performance pack is like an accessory. The purchaser wishes for something extra and he pays for it. Government will not provide any subsidy to this and rightly so. Sports edition, Iron man special, MSD special, Wimbledon special, World cup special… we have so many variants in the market (at an additional cost to the base vehicle. Just like that, the 450X and the Series1 are special variants of the 450+.