Ather Energy Pvt. Ltd., an electric vehicle (EV) maker, said its plans to open a second manufacturing facility in the South by September 2020 has got delayed by a few months following the outbreak of COVID-19.
“We have our first plant up and running in Bengaluru,” Tarun Mehta, co-founder and CEO, Ather Energy, told The Hindu
“The plan to open the next one in Hosur, Tamil Nadu by August/September has got delayed by a few months,” he added.
“However, the civil works are on and we will start production by end-December,” he said. In December 2019, Ather entered into an MoU with the Tamil Nadu government to set up the ₹635 crore plant in Hosur.
The new plant will have a capacity to manufacture one lakh units per annum.
The Bengaluru plant was producing close to 1,000 units per month and it was capable of scaling it up to 2,800 units per month.
“Once, Bengaluru unit starts producing 2,800 units per month, then we will shift our focus to the Hosur plant,” he said.
Mr. Mehta said the company was in the process of introducing a new electric scooter in two versions — Ather 450+ and Ather 450X.
Ather 450X will besuperior than450+ in terms of speed, performance, range and charging. It will be priced at ₹1.59 lakh, he added.
Mr. Mehta said the company would initially sell the new electric scooter in Bengaluru and Chennai and then enter Hyderabad before October. By March 2021, the company plans to roll out its product in another eight cities, including Pune, Ahmedabad and the NCR.
Regarding installation of power-charging stations, he said at present 20 power grids were in place and another 80 would be added by FY21.
Hero Motor Corp and Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal had invested in Ather Energy, which was planning to raise more funds for expansion as well as to boost to meet its expansion and charging infrastructure facilities.
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