Ather Energy is easily among one of the most recognised names in the Indian electric vehicles market. And that, despite company’s presence being limited to select Indian cities. After raising millions of dollars in funding and launching a few models, the company has now announced expansion of its operations to four more cities in India.
After being operational in Bengaluru and Chennai, the company is now expanding to Kolkata and Ahmedabad along with Kochi and Coimbatore. The company is citing strong consumer response as a reason to expand operations to these cities. All four cities are traditional industrial hubs, with their GDPs among some of the highest in the country.
Ather will now start the installment of fast charging infrastructure in the coming months in these four cities, which will be followed by the delivery of scooters. Currently, Ather 450X can be pre-ordered through the company’s website for a fully refundable ₹2,500.
The announcement comes after the company recently expanded to Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad, along with launching an upgraded EV scooter — the Ather 450X last month. The company had launched Ather 450 in the year 2018.
Tarun Mehta, co-founder and CEO of Ather Energy says that there is pretty strong interest for dealerships. He reveals that from Ahmedabad, “there is a request for at least 100 dealerships. From the volume perspective, we hope to do 30,000 units next fiscal from 10 cities.”
The electric scooter startup is now planning to expand its operations to more than 24 cities by the end of next fiscal year in order to meet demand. By March next year, it plans to have 200 fast charging points across these 10 cities, where it currently has just 50, that too in two cities — Bengaluru and Chennai.
Ather Energy was co-founded in 2013 by Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain. The company has designed India’s first truly intelligent electric scooters – Ather 450 and Ather 340. It has been backed by some prominent investors, including founders of Flipkart, Tiger Global Management, and Hero Motocorp, among others.
