Ather Energy will launch the Ather 450X in Kolkata by December this year. Speaking to TOI, Tarun Mehta, CEO of Ather Energy, has confirmed that it has received several dealership requests from the city.
Previously, just last month, the Bengaluru-based startup had confirmed its entry in Delhi-NCR. The company is operational only in Bengaluru and Chennai currently. It has also launched its new product, the Ather 450X which is India’s fastest accelerating electric scooter.
Ather Energy has also confirmed that it has received “phenomenal responses on pre-orders” from Kolkata. The company intends to increase its presence to 30-35 cities within the next three years. This year’s target cities include Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Ahmedabad and Kolkata.
Besides the Ather 450 and Ather 450X, Ather Energy is also focusing on setting up a public charging grid – the Ather Grid. Currently, it has 39 charging points in Bengaluru and 14 charging points in Chennai. The company intends to increase this to more than 200 charging points by December 2020 and 1,000 points by December 2021.
Speaking about the charging grid, Tarun adds, “We are in talks with malls, tech parks, restaurants, and coffee shops in Kolkata to set up the Ather Grid. We should open Kolkata with at least 10 public fast-charging stations. In addition, we also install a charging point in our customers’ apartments at the time of delivery.”
Ather Energy’s existing manufacturing facility in Bengaluru has an installed annual production capacity of 35,000 to 40,000 units. It will also be setting up a greenfield facility in Hosur, Tamil Nadu which will stretch over an area of 4 lakh sq ft. Once this new facility is operational, the existing facility will be converted into an R&D centre.
The startup has previously received funding from the likes of Flipkart Co-founder Sachin Bansal, two-wheeler manufacturer Hero MotoCorp, Singapore-based InnoVen Capital and American hedge fund & venture capital investor Tiger Global.
[Source: TOI]
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