Ather Energy

Ather Energy Pvt. Ltd.
Type of business Private
Founded 2013 (2013)
Headquarters Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Founder(s) Tarun Mehta
Swapnil Jain[1]
Industry Automotive
Products Electric Vehicles
Website www.atherenergy.com

Ather Energy is an Indian electric vehicle company founded by Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain in 2013. It manufactures two electric scooter models, 340 and 450. It has also established electric vehicle charging infrastructure AtherGrid.

History

Ather Energy was founded in 2013 by Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain. In early 2014, it received Rs 45 lakh from the Technology Development Board under Department of Science and Technology, IIT Madras and Srini V Srinivasan, IIT alumnus and founder of Aerospike.[2] In December 2014, Flipkart founders, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal invested $1 million as the seed capital.[3] Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal expressed a positive sentiment towards the company and showed inclination towards energy-efficient vehicles. In May 2015, it received US$ 12 million (Rs.75.33 crore) from Tiger Global for investments in development, testing, production and the launch of the vehicle.[4] On 23 February 2016, the company unveiled its smart scooter S340 at a technology conference Surge in Bangalore.[5][6] Hero MotoCorp invested US$ 30.5 million (Rs. 205 crore) as Series B round of funding in October 2016 and gained 32.31% stake in the company. It again invested US$ 19 million (Rs. 130 crore) in 2018.[7][8]

Production and sale

The company has announced an online-only purchase model for selling the product with doorstep service. It set up its manufacturing unit in Whitefield, Bangalore which commenced production in 2018 with capacity of 600 vehicles per week.[9][10] The company has disclosed the price of the scooter to be ₹109,750 for the base 340 model and ₹124,750 for the more powerful 450 version (roughly $1,600 to $1,850 USD).[11] It is also establishing AtherGrid, an electric vehicle charging infrastructure in Bengaluru. The company has setup over 20 charging points across the city, as of July 2018[10]

Ather 450

Ather 450

The Ather 450 is the more powerful version of the two scooters' sold by Ather. The scooter is constructed using an all aluminium frame, comes with a 5.4kW (7.2 BHP) Brushless DC electric motor, and a 2.4 kWh Lithium ion battery pack. The scooter can accelerate to 40 km/h in 3.9 seconds, attain a top speed of 80 km/h, and can travel 75 km on one charge in city riding conditions(107 km in the Indian Drive Cycle).

The scooter features a 7-inch touchscreen dashboard, and comes with features like on-board navigation, diagnostics, all-LED lighting, auto-cancelling indicators, smartphone integration, and cloud connectivity to send and receive data from Ather's servers.

AtherGrid: Charging Network

AtherGrid Location

Ather has started setting up its own charging network dubbed as AtherGrid, in Bengaluru. These DC-fast-charging stations use Ather's proprietary charging method and connector to charge the scooters at a rate of 1km/min. The charging points are also equipped with a 3-pin wall socket to supply AC power to other electric vehicles that do not use Ather's connector. Other vehicle can connect to the charging point and start charging using the AtherGrid App for iOS and Android.

Ather has plans to setup around 60 points in Bengaluru, and setup more AtherGrid in other cities as it expands. Ather also sets up a home charging point at customer's homes which will charge the Ather 450 to 80% in 2 hours 40 minutes and to 100% in 4 hours 18 minutes.

AtherSpace: Experience Centers

Unlike most auto-manufactures in India, Ather Energy owns and operates its Experience Centers, the company claims that this helps in maintaining end-to-end customer experience. The experience centers dubbed, AtherSpace, are aimed at increasing product understanding, providing customer education, and giving a first-hand experience of the product to consumers. Test rides are also provided at the experience centers and can be pre-booked on the company's website.

Experience centers have components of the scooter displayed with useful information provided alongside each of them. There is also a fully built naked scooter on display to show the chassis of the scooter.

The first experience center opened to consumers on June 8, 2018 at 100-ft road Indiranagar, Bengaluru.

Response

Since the launch, the Ather 450 has gained positive reviews from auto-journalists, based on early testing. The response by consumers has also been mostly positive on various social media platforms. Most reviews claiming the scooter to be the best electric scooter in the country by a fair margin. Ather has provided close to 2,500 test rides at AtherSpace, and has already sold out the Ather 450 until early 2019.

Deliveries

Ather 450 deliveries began on 11th, September, 2018. A set of ten vehicles was handed over to the customers at a special delivery event held at Ather's vehicle factory.

References

  1. ↑ http://www.forbesindia.com/article/30-under-30-2018/tarun-mehta-swapnil-jain-electrifying-scooters/49385/1
  2. ↑ "Flipkart founders invest $1 million in Ather Energy". The Hindu.
  3. ↑ "Flipkart founders lead $1M investment in electric scooter startup Ather Energy". Tech Crunch.
  4. ↑ "Bansals backed Ather Energy raises $12M from Tiger Global". Business Standard.
  5. ↑ "Ather Energy showcases S340 India's first smart scooter at Surge 2016. FirstPost".
  6. ↑ "5,000+ attendees from 72 countries on their way to SURGE". SurgeConf.
  7. ↑ "Hero MotoCorp To Invest Up To ₹ 205 Crore In Ather Energy". NDTV Auto.
  8. ↑ "Hero MotoCorp to refuel Ather Energy with $19 mn". VCCircle. 2018-07-25. Retrieved 2018-07-30.
  9. ↑ "Ather Energy mimics Tesla's model to sell its smart electric scooters". Business Standard.
  10. 1 2 Thomas, Maria. "The launch of this e-scooter is a moment of reckoning for India's EV market". Quartz. Retrieved 2018-07-30.
  11. ↑ Lahiri, Diptendu. "Flipkart founder-backed Indian startup launches subsidized electric..." U.S. Retrieved 2018-06-05.
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