Ather Energy, India’s leading electric scooter manufacturer, recently crossed yet another milestone with the inauguration of its 100th Experience Centre (EC) in Patparganj, New Delhi. The brand, commemorating a decade in the EV industry, witnessed an array of landmark moments in the first month of the year itself, including rolling out the 1,00,000th scooter from Ather’s manufacturing facility and selling 12,149 units, registering a 329% year-on-year growth.
The past few years have been momentous for Ather. The company’s rapid expansion plans helped it reach the 100-store milestone from 50 stores in September 2022, within a short span of five months. Currently, Ather is present across 80 cities in 20+ states in India, where it has also emerged as the market leader across the top scooter centric markets such as Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka. Ather currently has a market share of 14.1%, making it one of the top 3 players in the segment. Ather’s efforts to change the status quo are clearly visible, with its focus not just being concentrated in tier-1 cities. At present, Ather has 64 ECs present in tier 2 and 3 cities, which helped the brand garner 41% of its sales volume in the last 3 months. Expanding at its current pace, Ather plans to open 200 touchpoints by March 2023.
Speaking on the occasion, Ravneet Singh Phokela, Chief Business Officer, Ather Energy, said: “The last year has been very exciting, with the EC expansion picking up serious momentum. We began this financial year with 34 EC across 28 cities, and we opened our 50th EC in September 2022. Since then we’ve added 50 more ECs, to reach the 100 ECs across 78 cities. We will continue to expand our retail footprint over the next 12-18 months. With our current footprint, we are present only in 56% of the geographies where EVs are sold, and that affords us a huge headroom to grow.”
Ather Energy is one of the few OEMs that invests in charging infrastructure as well. The company has installed 30+ Ather Grids, fast charging points in Delhi-NCR and plans to add 30-35 more across the cities by March 2023. Currently, Ather Energy has the largest fast-charging network for two-wheelers in India with over 900 Ather Grids. The company plans to install 1400 Ather Grids by the end of FY23. Earlier this month, the company launched Ather Neighbourhood Charging, which provides access to charging points in shared private spaces such as apartment complexes, office buildings, and tech parks.
Ather rolled out AtherStack 5.0 in January 2023, the biggest upgrade to the scooter’s software engine. In addition to introducing Vector Maps powered by Google, AtherStack 5.0 also introduces a completely new user interface for the dashboard. Ather scooters offer the greatest navigational experience of any scooter in India because of this function. Additionally, the Atherstack 5.0 adds AutoHold™, which prevents the scooter from rolling forward or backward on slopes and facilitates riding on inclines and drops. Along with this, Ather has also introduced Battery Protect™, an unmatched five-year battery warranty program in the E2W segment that will provide tremendous peace of mind for first time consumers. In order to improve riding comfort, Ather has also unveiled a new seat with superior padding and styling. Merchandise and Accessories for scooters have also been introduced. Ather has also introduced six new colours – Space Grey, Still White, Salt Green, True Red, Cosmic Black, and Lunar Grey for the 450X and 450 Plus, inspired by automotive performance. The ex-showroom price post the Fame II revision for the Ather 450X in Delhi is INR 157,507 & INR 135,996 for the Ather 450 Plus.
