Power List – Ather Energy

Ather Energy has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Tamil  Nadu government to build a 400,000 sq-ft factory. The new facility, which is likely to be start operations in 2020, will have an initial installed capacity of  100,000 units. The company’s existing plant in Bengaluru, in comparison, has a production capacity of 20,000-25,000 units. The production at the new facility in Hosur, Tamil Nadu, will be ramped up in a phased manner depending on the demand. Ather Energy is expanding its presence to 10 cities and plans to increase its reach to 24 cities by the end of the FY2022.

Besides expanding its production capacity, the Bengaluru-based electric two-wheeler manufacturer is also revising its product portfolio. In September last year, the company discontinued its lower-spec model, the Ather 340, due to low demand. The company introduced its new product, the 450X, in January 2020.

The company first plans to equip various cities with its next-generation fast charging Ather Grid points, and subsequently launch it.

Ather 450X is a critical step up from the previous generation scooter as it features a larger battery, has 4G network support, and comes in three colours. The electric scooter has an aluminium chassis with a 7-inch touchscreen dashboard that is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 212 quad-core processor and runs an open-source version of the Android OS by Google. The 450X weighs in at 108 kilograms, which are around 10 kg lower than the weight of the Ather 450.