EV Startup Ather Energy To Enter Chennai in June

Hinting that the company is en route to launch in multiple cities this year, Chennai became the second city where Ather is expanding after its successful commercial launch in Bengaluru in 2018.

Entering the phase of rapid expansion Ather has announced its innings in the auto hub of the country Chennai. The EV firm is going ahead with its plans to be in 30 cities over the next couple of years.

Just like Bengaluru, Ather Energy will introduce both its products 450 and 340, along with installing its public charging infrastructure, Ather Grid. The charging grid will be located in consumer-friendly locations such as cafes, malls, tech-parks, gyms across the cities. To encourage adoption of EVs in the city, Ather Energy has announced free charging at Ather Points for all electric vehicles for the first 6 months.

Ather’s electric and intelligent scooters are to bring ease of access and convenience to their owners by allowing them to identify charging point locations and their real-time availability through the Ather Grid app. This unique model is currently existent in Bengaluru with Ather Grid up and running at 24 charging locations with 31 charging points.

After witnessing tremendous success in Bengaluru with stocks of Ather 450 being sold out till September 2019 in Bengaluru alone, the company today has opened its early access privileges to Chennaites and the rest of India as it ramps up. The “Pre-Order Interest” option on the company’s website gives consumers priority deliveries, early access to book the Ather 450 & Ather 340 and invitations to exclusive events and test rides.

Read: Bengaluru’s Ather Energy makes its move with EV charging network

Ather Energy reiterated its commitment to developing India’s charging ecosystem by announcing its pan-India association with Godrej Nature’s Basket recently. The partnership will see Ather Energy setting-up its charging stations – Ather Point – at Godrej Nature’s Baskets’ 35 odd locations across the country.

The move is like their homecoming as Chennai holds a special place for the company’s founders–Tarun and Swapnil, who are also IIT Madras graduates. It was during their time at the institute that the founders decided to build electric scooters instead of battery packs to address the influx of substandard EVs flooding the Indian market.

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Ravneet Phokela, Chief Business Officer said, “The launch in Chennai is like a homecoming for Ather, as the organization was conceptualized at IIT Madras. We have already started receiving pre-order interest from enthusiasts on the website.”

Backed by founders of Flipkart, Tiger Global and Hero Motocorp, Ather Energy has successfully silenced the critics who were wary about its success. Ather electric scooters comes with a built-in 3G SIM card, and has a seven-inch touchscreen dashboard. This lets you toggle between different riding modes, run Google Maps navigation, and upload documents like licence, RC book, and insurance papers. The Ather bike goes 75 km on a single charge, but some users say they have managed 100 km. The total time to charge is four hours; 80 percent of the battery charges in two hours. Ather 340 and Ather 450 are priced at Rs 1.1 lakh and Rs 1.3 lakh, respectively.