Short answer first: you never fill a subsidy form. The central PM E-DRIVE incentive reaches you as an upfront discount on the purchase invoice — the dealer claims the money back from the government later. Your entire job as the buyer is to verify the discount exists at four checkpoints. Miss any one of them and the money quietly evaporates into the dealer's margin.
Step 1 — before booking: is your model approved?
The incentive applies only to models on the approved list at pmedrive.heavyindustries.gov.in, and only below the scheme's ex-factory price cap — so some premium variants qualify for nothing. Search the exact variant (not just the model name), and screenshot the listing. If a showroom promises "the subsidy will come" for a variant you cannot find on the list, believe the list, not the showroom.
Step 2 — at quotation: the discount must be printed
Ask for the quotation with the PM E-DRIVE line item visible. On a typical 2–3 kWh scooter pack, that is ₹5,000 (₹2,500/kWh, capped). A discount described verbally but absent from paper is a discount you will never see. This one check saves more argument than everything else on this page combined.
Step 3 — at delivery: Aadhaar face verification
PM E-DRIVE replaced the old OTP process with Aadhaar face authentication, done at the dealership against the pmedrive portal before invoicing. It takes two minutes with the dealer's tablet — you look at the camera, the system matches, the incentive locks to your vehicle ID. No documents to courier, no portal account to create. If a dealer says "verification baad me ho jayegi", insist it happens before you pay; claims without verification bounce, and the discount has a way of becoming your problem afterwards.
Step 4 — the invoice test
The final purchase invoice must show the subsidy as a line-item discount. This piece of paper is also what your state road-tax waiver hangs off: registration must happen with the EV exemption applied, green number plate issued, and the correct (zero or reduced) tax slab on the RC. Dealers in every state now do this weekly — but a booking made in one quarter and delivered in the next, across a policy expiry, is exactly how buyers get charged the old slab. Confirm before payment, not after.
What state benefits need — if any
Most state road-tax waivers are automatic at registration when the state's EV policy is active; a few states' purchase incentives (women riders, students, delivery workers) do need a short application through the state transport portal. Our state-by-state guide lists which states pay what, and links each transport department so you can check validity dates yourself.