Ather Energy Launches 450X At A Price Rivalling Bajaj Chetak Electric Scooter
Ather 450X will cost Rs 99,000 if bought with two monthly subscription packs. That compares with Bajaj Chetak Rs 1 lakh price tag.
WATCH | Co-founder Tarun Mehta speak on Ather Energy’s expansion plans
Ather Energy, backed by India’s largest two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp Ltd., plans to expand its operations to around 24 cities by the end of 2021-22 as it looks to cater to customers across India, a top company official said Tuesday.
The company, which on Tuesday introduced its second electric scooter 450X, plans to take its overall production capacity to 1.3 lakh units per annum by the end of FY22.
With added sales infrastructure and new products, Ather Energy aims revenue of Rs 1,800 crore by March 2022 from the expected Rs 540 crore in the next fiscal.
"With Ather 450X, we are excited to be expanding across the country. This year we are starting operations in eight more cities and setting up retail partnerships across the country for the same,” Tarun Mehta, co-founder and chief executive officer at Ather Energy, said at the launch event in New Delhi.
The company currently sells only one electric scooter, the Ather 450, in Chennai and Bengaluru. It now plans to set up operations across the country, including Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad. "We have initiated bookings for the new model and the deliveries in Delhi-NCR would begin by July," Mehta said.
He said that the company has signed a pact with the Tamil Nadu government to set up a new production facility at Hosur in Karnataka. Ather Energy currently has a plant in Bengaluru.
With the new plant getting operational over the next 6-9 months, the company would be able to raise its overall capacity to 1.3 lakh units in 2021-22, Mehta said. The company aims to have a capacity to roll out 30,000 units in 2020-21.
"The enhanced capacity would help us to cut waiting periods for the two models," he added. Ather Energy also plans to build charging infrastructure in cities where it plans to expand operations going ahead.
When asked about the number of units sold so far, Mehta declined to comment saying the company has just started to scale up operations.
The Ather 450X is priced at Rs 99,000 (ex-showroom Delhi) if bought with two monthly subscription packs. The Plus subscription pack is priced at Rs 1,699 while Pro pack is tagged at Rs 1,999 per month. Without the said subscription packs, the Plus trim is priced at Rs 1.49 lakh while the Pro variant is tagged at Rs 1.59 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).
The pricing is comparable to Bajaj Chetak EV, which was recently launched at Rs 1 lakh for the base model and Rs 1.15 kah for the premium one.
Ather 450X is a significant step-up from Ather 450 with improvements across multiple key parameters. The electric scooter comes with a 6 kilowatt motor, a new 2.9 kWh lithium-ion battery that comes mated with four riding modes. It can go from 0-40 km/h in just 3.3 seconds and has a real life range of 85 km in city conditions.
Ather 450X features also include 4G SIM and Wi-Fi connectivity along with Bluetooth, allowing riders to manage phone calls and music on the touchscreen dashboard.
The new touchscreen dashboard comes with Snapdragon Quad Core processor. The scooter utilises Android Open Source to offer map navigation, on-board diagnostics and other unique features like over-the-air updates, among others.
Ather Energy was founded in 2013 by IIT Madras alumni Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain. Currently, it is backed by founders of Flipkart, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, Hero MotoCorp and Tiger Global Management.