Ather ups production goals; to launch e-bike

Electric scooter maker Ather Energy revealed plans to launch an electric bike and unveiled its second factory at Hosur in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday with the aim of more than tripling its production capacity.

The 'Gen3' factory, which is spread across 3,00,000 square feet, will help it up its production to 4,20,000 units a year from 1,20,000 before.

While Ather is looking to focus on the mass market by introducing products across various price points, its chief business officer, Ravneet Singh Phokela, clarified that it did not have plans to bring in products for the fleet and commercial segment. It has plans to launch an electric bike, Phokela said, without sharing any concrete timeline.

The new facility also has a battery manufacturing unit with two functional assembly lines making about 2,00,000 batteries currently.

"By the end of this financial year, we will have three more assembly lines functional and be able to push the capacity to 4,30,000 batteries," said Ather Energy co-founder and chief technology officer, Swapnil Jain.

Ather, which counts HeroMoto Corp and Tiger Global as its lead investors, has equipped the new plant with 100+ smart devices, 45 connected machines, 150 connected manual stations and about 4,000 parameters to make its manufacturing process more efficient.

"We will be looking at need-based automation to increase safety and efficiency," Jain added.

Ather, which is present in 52 cities currently, has sold about 66,000 scooters since the start of commercial operations in 2019. More than a third of its scooters sold to date are in Karnataka, with Bengaluru accounting for the largest chunk.

"It is largely because of more awareness about EVs and more tech-savvy people here," said Jain. While the company is looking to expand further in other cities, it "is taking a bit more time" to enter markets in North India, Jain told DH.

Currently, cells for its lithium-ion batteries are the only one out of the 341 components the company imports from outside India. When asked if Ather could enter the cell manufacturing space, Jain said it would prefer partnering with another stakeholder in India rather than putting its customers at risk by doing something it doesn't have expertise in.