The electric two-wheeler start-up Ather Energy has confirmed that they will be launching a new, more affordable electric scooter in the next 12 to 18 months. Also, the company will be launching an electric motorcycle. However, that’s at least three to four years!
Speaking to MoneyControl, Ather Energy has also confirmed that the new electric scooter will have a range of around 75 km on a single charge. That’s the same range as the Ather 450. Besides that, the new scooter will also get the connected feature as seen in the existing scooter.
At present, Ather Energy retails its scooter, the Ather 450 only in Bengaluru and Chennai. The company aims to mark its presence in Mumbai by mid-2020. Other cities will include Delhi, Pune, Ahmedabad and Kolkata. In fact, by the end of the year 2020, Ather aims to be present in at least 10 cities. Also, the company aims to increase its presence to 30 to 35 cities in the next 2 to 3 years.
Ather Energy currently has a manufacturing capacity of 35,000 to 40,000 annually. They are also working on a new greenfield facility which will come up near the existing plant. This new plant will have a manufacturing capacity of 5 lakh units annually and will be operational by September 2020. Also, once the new facility is active, the existing plant will be converted to an R&D centre.
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The Bengaluru based start-up currently retails just a single product, the Ather 450. Powering the scooter is an electric motor, which produces 5.4 kW (7.34 PS) of power and 20.5 Nm of torque. The battery is a 2.4 kWh lithium-ion unit and has a three-year (unlimited kilometres) warranty. Besides that, the scooter has a top speed of 80 kmph.
Ather has so far received funding from Flipkart founders, Sachin and Binny Bansal, Hero MotoCorp, Singapore-based InnoVen Capital, and American hedge fund and venture capital investor Tiger Global.
[Source: MoneyControl]
