Ather Energy, India’s leading EV scooter brand inaugurated its second manufacturing facility in Hosur, Tamil Nadu. The facility spread across 300,000 sq. ft will help the brand expand its production capacity to 420,000 units per annum, further enabling the company to fulfill the increasing demand for its flagship scooters – the Ather 450X and 450 Plus.
Speaking on the launch of the new plant, Swapnil Jain, Co-Founder & CTO, Ather Energy said, “Rapid scale up is susceptible to quality issues and delivering safe and reliable products to our customers is our biggest priority while creating a vision for the plant. With deep investments and innovation done on processes and machines, this plant will help us to further strengthen our leadership in delivering quality vehicles”
Ather’s new manufacturing facility is spread over 300,000 sq.ft and houses two units – one dedicated to battery production and the other for vehicle assembly. The battery unit will have five assembly lines and the vehicle assembly will have two assembly lines. The entire facility will have an installed capacity of 420,000 units to meet the growing demand for its scooters. The completely state-of-the-art, modern facility is in line with the governments ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ and will further boost local manufacturing in the country. With a strong local ecosystem that has been developed, most of the supplier base for Ather Energy is in Tamil Nadu and neighbouring Karnataka, making Hosur an ideal location for the factory.
Speaking on the new facility Swapnil said“With our latest manufacturing facility at Hosur, Ather has set new benchmarks in quality at scale through manufacturing innovation in the EV industry. The new facility has been enabled with Industry 4.0 bringing together data from Testing & Simulation, Process (Industry 4.0), Field (connected vehicle) to deliver electric scooters with world class quality. With a strong focus on manufacturing excellence, we have improved our takt time by 10X and work content by 4X. Towards our commitment to vehicle safety, we have class leading testing standards for our scooters on the vehicle as well as on the software side. Currently each scooter goes through more than 1500 stringent tests to ensure its reliability and safety.”
Ather Energy has been making strides towards becoming the leader in the EV revolution in the country. Keeping in mind to ensure that its manufacturing processes are sustainable, the facility meets all the relevant manufacturing standards. There are zero effluents generated from the factory and zero water discharge. There is inhouse STP & treated water circulated to flushing & plantation. The facility also has energy regenerative testing units at assembly lines and an all electric material.
Ather Energy plans to strengthen its retail operations by expanding to new markets. The company plans to expand to around 150 Experience Centers in 100 cities by March 2023. It has also invested heavily in the charging infrastructure to provide a holistic experience to the rider community. Recently the company achieved the milestone of installing 500 fast-charging stations across the country and plans to install 1400 Ather Grids by the end of FY23 to support the growth of the EV industry and facilitate a hassle-free transition to EVs.
