CHENNAI: The government has cracked down on electric two-wheeler companies that allegedly did not comply with the requirement for localisation of components and has suspended incentive payment to Hero Electric and Okinawa.

In addition, companies including Greaves Cotton’s Ampere, Rattanindia’s Revolt, Okaya and Jitendra EV have to face an audit by ARAI (Automotive Research Association of India)to check if they meet the required level of localisation under the Fame-2 scheme.

The Rs 10,000-crore scheme provided incentives for multiple categories of registered vehicles using advanced batteries, including 10 lakh electric two-wheelers.

The ministry of heavy industries’ website showed that the government has decided to put on hold Fame-2 subsidies for Hero Electric and Okinawa, the two largest players in the electric two-wheeler segment in India with combined sales of nearly 17,000 units a month. Ampere, Revolt, Okaya and Jitendra together sell another 10,000-11,000 units a month.

Sources in the auto industry said that the first round of ARAI audits happened in the first week of September and the second round of audits have kicked off from September 30.

When contacted on Thursday, Hero Electric, Okinawa and Revolt did not comment. A Greaves Cotton spokesperson said: “An audit was successfully conducted by the test agency officials at our Ranipet plant and we have been given a clean chit.”

A spokesman for Jitendra EV said: “Jitendra New EV Tech has not received any notice from the department of heavy industries about any of our company’s models becoming ineligible for subsidies under the new mechanisms to calculate domestic value addition under Fame-2.”

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People interested in electric vehicles would be encouraged at the experience centre and they can also avail themselves of test-rides of the company’s S1 and S1 Pro electric scooters.

Interestingly, according to sources, the upcoming Ola electric scooter is likely to retail most of the features of the S1, including riding modes and smartphone connectivity. The new S1 variant will be operating on Ola’s MoveOS platform.