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|In: Funding|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Ather Energy, one of India’s first intelligent electric scooter manufacturers, has raised an investment of USD 35 Million in its latest round of Series D led by Sachin Bansal’s investment of USD 23 Million. Ather Energy was one of the earliest start-up investments of Sachin Bansal when he invested USD 0.5 Million in the firm as an Angel investor in 2014 and with this round, has made a total investment of USD 53 Million.

Hero MotoCorp has also invested USD 12 Million as a part of the Series D round in Ather Energy. The continued investment by the existing investors is a manifestation of confidence in the brand and the sector.

Ather Energy’s new line of products Ather 450X and Ather 450 Plus has been making news across the country. Ather Energy has been aggressively expanding, with the opening of 9 new markets – Pune, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Coimbatore, Kochi, Kozhikode & Kolkata in the coming days, and the installation of Ather Grid in all the new cities. To meet the projected demand in the coming years, Ather Energy is moving to a new manufacturing facility in Hosur, Tamil Nadu, which will be designed to produce up to 1 million vehicles a year. This round of investment will allow Ather Energy to accelerate its expansion plans and speed up the deliveries of the Ather 450X.

Ather Energy also unveiled their collector’s edition vehicle Series 1, the only two wheeler with transparent panels in India, in September. The Series 1 vehicle has been designed for early owners of the vehicle with only a limited group eligible to purchase it. In the past 6 months, Ather Energy has added multiple new financing plans – a one of its kind Assured Buyback option for the Ather 450X & Ather 450 Plus, new lease and loan programs and a two wheeler exchange plan. Ather Energy will begin deliveries of their smart electric scooters across India this Diwali.

Tarun Mehta, Co-founder & CEO, Ather Energy, said

Electric vehicles are here to stay and Ather Energy is playing a leading role in driving this change. Sachin has been part of our growth journey and this investment is a strong endorsement of the momentum we’ve built over these years.

Post the successful launch of our new product line, we are now looking forward to delivering the vehicles and seeing them across all cities. The pandemic has changed the landscape of personal transport and we hope that with high performance alternatives available people will choose electric vehicles for their daily commute.

Sachin Bansal, one of the early backers of Ather Energy, said

Ather Energy has set a new benchmark for intelligent electric bikes in the Indian automobile industry. Their new product line and expansion plans across the country will make EVs a part of the Indian landscape. Having been a part of the team since 2014, it’s great to see their vision taking shape.

About Ather

Ather Energy, one of India’s first intelligent electric vehicle manufacturers, was founded in 2013 by IIT Madras alumni, Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain. Backed by founders of Flipkart, Sachin Bansal & Binny Bansal, Hero Motocorp and Tiger Global, Ather Energy launched India’s first truly intelligent electric scooter – Ather 450 in 2018, followed by their new flagship offering Ather 450X in 2020. Ather has also installed a comprehensive public charging network, Ather Grid, built and designed in India.

Ather has added multiple ownership and purchase options for consumers, making it easier and more affordable to shift to EVs, including petrol  exchange, private leasing, monthly subscription and model upgrades. For more information, visit Ather Energy.

|In: Technology|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Ather Energy, India’s first locally designed and manufactured intelligent scooter brand, has added additional subscription plans for the Ather 450 & 340, based on the success of Ather One, the complete hassle free ownership plan. The new plans will offer more flexibility to the customer to choose services of their choice based on their usage. Public charging at AtherGrid will remain free till 31st of December 2019 for all Ather customers.

Ather One, Ather Energy’s flagship plan, will continue being available, and customers will enjoy its free services for a year from their date of delivery. Ather One has been designed to manage all the hassles of the current automobile ownership. The plan covers all expenses & scooter maintenance, including data charges, public fast charging, home charging expenses, periodic service including consumables and roadside assistance.

Upon completion of their the first year, customers will be free to migrate to any other plan of their choice. Since flexibility in choosing services basis usage and individual preference was a pertinent ask, Ather Energy’s new plans will cater to requirements on demand. Ather scooters being intelligent mobility solutions, data will be a constant feature across the plans that will help the auto company understand individual’s ride, scooter’s health, riding conditions and subsequently, push over-the-air updates, provide ride recommendations and run services like navigation.

For individuals intending to pre-order from today, Ather Service plan will be applicable for free for a limited period. Free Ather One plan for pre-order customers stands discontinued from 31st October, 2018.

About Ather Energy

Co-founded in 2013 by IIT Madras graduates – Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain, Ather Energy is one the few automotive startups in India. The company has designed India’s first truly intelligent electric scooters – Ather 450 & Ather 340 and is backed by the founders of Flipkart, Tiger Global and Hero Motocorp. Ather Energy has filed 43 patent applications along with 11 international patent applications and 122 design registrations of their products that have been designed and made in India.

|In: Technology|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Ather Energy launched their disruptive intelligent, electric scooter Ather 450 & their previously unveiled variant, the Ather 340. The Ather 450 is designed for city riding conditions, it comes with a top speed of 80 km/hr, a range of 75 km and one of the quickest accelerations of 3.9 seconds from 0-40 km/hr in the scooter market. Limited pre-orders have opened on Ather’s website and, their experience centre, AtherSpace  at Indiranagar will open for test rides on Friday, 8th June.

Image Source – Ather Energy

The Product

The Ather 450 has been designed to solve for problems limiting current electric two-wheelers, like slow charging speeds, low powered motors, and short battery lives. It can fast charge to 80% at a rate of 1 km/minute. It comes with a 3.3kW BLDC motor that can comfortably ride up 18-degree slopes, making steep parking lots, flyovers, and roads an easy climb. And for the first time in the category, Ather 450 comes with parking assist, which allows riders to reverse into tight parking locations.

The key differentiator of the Ather 450 are its intelligence features, seamless charging and ownership experience. The Ather 450 has a 7″ touchscreen dashboard that allows onboard navigation with options of alternative routes and saved locations. It comes with the Ather app that enables push navigation from the phone to the vehicle dashboard, remote monitoring of the vehicle health, charge monitoring and managing service requirements. Finally, with the Over-The-Air [OTA] functionality, the vehicle is capable of improving over time with continuous improvement and addition of new features and functionalities.

The Ather 450 comes with a home charging Point, that will be installed by the company at either owners’ homes or workplace. Features like surge protection, authenticated power draw, and remote charge monitoring makes Ather’s Point a fast, safe and intelligent charger.

Ather Energy has a new dealership and service model. While the ordering, payment, and test ride scheduling is online, the brand has opened its experience centre, AtherSpace to give customers an in-depth look and experience of the product. The servicing woes are also taken away by a seamless doorstep pickup and service that can be scheduled through the Ather app.

The Pricing

Ather is offering a unique no-hassle, pricing model. The total cost includes what consumers pay upfront to buy the scooter and a monthly subscription that will take care of most operational expenses.

The Ather One plan entitles customers to free public and home charging, periodic maintenance inclusive of consumables, breakdown assistance and unlimited data services for the dashboard at only Rs. 700 + GST per month, which is way lower than the sustenance cost of present scooters.

The Ather 450 is priced at Rs. 1,24,750 on road and the Ather 340  is priced at Rs. 1,09,750 on road. This is inclusive of subsidy @ Rs. 22,000, GST, road tax, smart card fee, registration card, and insurance.

For the first set of consumers, Ather Energy is offering the first year of the subscription plan for free. The company will also provide a home charging Point with the Ather 450 and a charging cable with the Ather 340. The price of these products and their installation will be waived off for these consumers.

[L-R] Swapnil Jain, CTO & Co-Founder, Ather Energy and Tarun Mehta, CEO & Co-Founder, Ather Energy

Announcing the launch of the products, Tarun Mehta, Co-founder & CEO, said

We started building electric scooters four years ago at IIT Madras and we are super excited to launch not only the Ather 340, but also our higher performance flagship variant, the Ather 450. It has been designed with quick acceleration, great handling, high storage space and new-to-category features like park assist, remote diagnostics, and onboard navigation. In the last 4 years we have not only built the scooter, but an ecosystem for an electric vehicle future.

Be it the suppliers and partners who were entering the EV market, the charging infrastructure that had to be set up for consumers and the engineering talent itself to build the products. Between the Ather 450 & Ather 340 launching and AtherGrid being up and running in Bengaluru, we are really looking forward to expanding into Chennai & Pune in the coming months. These are exciting times to be a part of the industry.

About Ather Energy

Co-founded in 2013 by IIT graduates – Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain, Ather Energy is one the few hardware startups in India. The company designing India’s first truly intelligent electric scooter and is backed by the founders of Flipkart, Tiger Global and Hero Motocorp.

|In: startups|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Ather Energy, the smart electric two-wheeler start-up, have announced the new addition of Dr.Venkatesh Padmanabhan as the Chief Operating Officer and Thiruppathy Srinivasan (Thiru) as Vice-President of Vehicle Development. Fondly known as Venki, he will head supply chain, quality, manufacturing, and service delivery at Ather.

Dr.Venkatesh Padmanabhan said

For my 10 years in India, I have been wrestling with this singular question : Can we, will we create world beating consumer hardware products and brands from scratch?  We are great in value engineering, local sourcing manufacturing and even at detail engineering of designs of others. But what about solving hairy consumer problems with our own design, and our own brand? When I met Tarun, Swapnil and their team at Ather, it was like a lightning bolt hit me. They surely have great brand, design and engineering mojo and are in early stages of building detail engineering and manufacturing capability. I thought I had value to add to this exciting quest and I signed up.

Thiruppathy Srinivasan (Thiru) said

Having worked around the world and in India, I am convinced of the great capability here to engineer innovative product concepts. Especially our young engineers with guidance from seniors from industry and academia have been developing exceptional product concepts, as seen with many IIT Madras incubated companies recently.  Ather Energy is among the best of them and have assembled a great team producing a product design with no compromises.

Guiding the team in taking the design through development, along with supplier partners, into production and successfully into the market is an opportunity I am truly delighted to take up. In the past few months I have been with them, I have enjoyed the great level of openness, diligence, enthusiasm, and high sense of purpose of the team.

Tarun Mehta, CEO, Ather Energy said

Venki’s career has taken him to multiple countries and multiple automotive companies. He has a strong knowledge base of the operational requirements for an automotive company, specially two wheelers. His network and his experience in the industry is a valuable asset for a young company. Ather is a young company, building on a new platform with a nascent to often non-existent vendor ecosystem. Venki’s exposure to vendors and manufacturing processes in India will prove a strategic advantage as we close in on the production of the S340.

Thiru joins Ather with over 25 years of experience in product organisations and with a number of product launches under his belt. His knowledge of new product development and introduction will be a tremendous advantage for a startup like Ather. His exposure to the product vendor ecosystems in India, China as well as in countries like Singapore and the United States, gives us a strategic advantage in the prototyping cycle of the S340 and in our future products.

After 15 years at General Motors, in 2004 Dr. Padmanabhan joined Daimler Chrysler’s (DCX) Chrysler Division to support the integration of Lean Manufacturing in its diverse operations and later also worked at Mercedes Car Division. He was brought to India in 2007 as Managing Director of Chrysler’s first South East Asia Global Sourcing Centre in Chennai from where the company today sources close to USD 1 Billion every year in automotive parts.

About Dr.Venkatesh Padmanabhan

He joined Royal Enfield as Chief Operating Officer in 2008 and rose to the position of Chief Executive Officer in 2011. During this period, with two successful launches of the Classic and Thunderbird single cylinder UCE based motorcycles, the company saw a threefold increase in sales and twenty fold increase in profits. Royal Enfield now is a brand reborn and thriving in India and 45 other countries.

In 2013, Dr. Padmanabhan served as the MD & CEO of EICL [English Indian Clays Limited] to help recast a 75 year old $80M Kaolin Clay and Starch Producer into a modern innovation driven specialty chemicals company. He moved to Cyient in October 2015 to integrate its acquisition of Rangsons Electronics into extending the detail engineering offerings of its aerospace, defense, rail, medical and consumer business units into complete life cycle offerings.

About Thiruppathy Srinivasan

Thiru also serves as a Senior Advisor of Industry Relations at the Center for Industrial Consultancy & Sponsored Research, IIT Madras.  In this role he advises Industry and IITM faculty on Technology and Capability development in Manufacturing towards global leadership.

Thiru started his career in 3M after completing his Masters in Mechanical Engineering from The Ohio State University, USA. Eventually, he moved to Iomega (now Lenovo) supporting their worldwide design centers and factories in sourcing components from Asia. In 2002, he joined Rexnord as its Director of Global Quality in the Bearing Products Division.

He moved back to India in 2003 to serve as the Director of Sourcing for Tyco Healthcare (now Medtronic) managing their Bangalore and Shanghai offices. After a stint at IMI International, he joined AO Smith as Director of Operations, India in 2008. Thiru played a key role in establishing their Green Field Manufacturing Operations in Bangalore. In 2012, he joined  Ariv Technologies as their Managing Director and currently serves on their Board of Directors.

About Ather Energy

Ather Energy Pvt. Ltd. is an automobile design and manufacturing company founded in the year 2013 by IIT Madras graduates – Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain. Ather is committed to building smart, connected, uncompromising vehicles and seeks to re-imagine urban commute with the help of technology. The company has so far received funding from Hero MotoCorp, Tiger Global and Flipkart founders Sachin & Binny Bansal. The team of about 200+ employees is currently developing an electric two-wheeler, which will be completely designed and made In India. Ather is also setting up a charging network with its own smart charging pods. These fast charging pods will be set up initially across its three market cities – Bangalore, Chennai & Pune. For more information, please visit Ather Energy

|In: startups|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Setting a new benchmark in automotive technology, Ather Energy unveiled India’s first truly smart, electric scooter, the S340.  Packed with a powerful Lithium Ion battery pack, top speed of 72 kmph and a range upto 60 kms, this connected scooter is designed for urban tech lovers, who are curious about futuristic products.

S340 represents

  • S stands for scooter series
  • 3 is the kW motor
  • 40 is the amp-hour battery pack

Tarun Mehta, CEO & Co-Founder said

The future will be connected and inevitably electric and the Ather S340 has been built as a manifestation of this philosophy. It is an unapologetically electric vehicle, it has been designed and built mostly in-house with engineering precision.

Structurally robust and intelligently designed, its IP67-rated battery pack offers an un-compromised ride for 50,000 kms. The vehicle achieves an 80% charge in 50 minutes in fast charging mode and can be charged from any 5A normal socket in normal mode. It has a distinct sporty look with zero lateral weight offset, a low centre of gravity and intuitive LED lights that respond to ambient light conditions.

The S340 is not just redefining electric vehicles, it is one of the pioneers of smart scooters. The touchscreen dashboard integrates cloud based data to help personalise the consumer ride experience. Features like user profile based sign in, on board navigation, pre-configured drive modes like sport and economy allow a personalised experience. Its integration with the S340 Mobile App keeps the rider connected with the vehicle, to configure ride and profile preferences and sync navigation routes remotely. Predictive analyticsand aggregation of ride statistics enable customised recommendations. As more vehicles go in-field, aggregate rider and vehicle data will help in customised vehicle updates that will be delivered automatically over the air. Intelligent vehicles will revolutionize our commute experience in future and we have just begun that journey.

Sharing his vision on the industry, Tarun Mehta added

The automobile industry is in the midst of a huge technological disruption. The technology of electric vehicle has advanced in leaps and bounds. It is the preferred choice because of its inherent efficiency that will shape urban commute and the smart cities of tomorrow. The other aspect is the connectedness of the world around us, enabling integration of devices and making our life experiences seamless. Intelligent vehicles will revolutionise our commute experience in the future and the S340 stands at the cusp of this exciting reality.

Tarun Mehta & Swapnil Jain, Co-founders of Ather Energy

Dashboard of Ather S340

With a manufacturing unit set up in Bangalore, the S340 will be a great showcase of a product truly made in India and will roll out production by end of this year. Experience centres will bring the product to life and facilitate test rides in the next few months. In an industry first, Ather Energy will build an online-only purchase model with doorstep delivery and service.

Pre-ordering will be open in the cities of Bangalore, Chennai and Pune in the next quarter. The company also aims at setting up an ambitious public charging infrastructure in every city it will operate in, partnering with government and private enterprises.

About Ather Energy

Ather Energy is the brainchild of IIT graduates Tarun Mehta & Swapnil Jain and is among the few hardware start-ups in India. It was founded in 2013 and has received funding from Tiger Global and Flipkart founders Sachin & Binny Bansal. Aided by a breakthrough in the in-house designed Lithium-ion battery pack design, the team is gearing up for production of the S340, by the end of the year.

The Ather S340 has a touch-screen dashboard connected to the cloud, host of smart features and offers a top speed of 72 kmph. The scooter is designed in-house by Ather and will be manufactured in India.

For more information, please visit www.atherenergy.com