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Ather Prepares For Rapid Expansion; Chennai Launch Date Revealed
Ather Energy has announced its entry into the state of Tamil Nadu with operations starting in Chennai. Ather Energy will be launching its products in the Chennai region in June 2019. Chennai will be the second city for Ather Energy to operate in, after Bangalore.
Ather Energy is an electric vehicle manufacturer based out of Bangalore and hence naturally chose Bangalore to launch its electric scooters. The company had very clearly announced at the launch that it would expand operations to a few other major cities in 2019, and the first such expansion will be taking place in June this year.
Ather Energy is one of the premium electric vehicle manufacturers in the country and it is one the few companies in the world of electric scooters to have gone all-out when it comes to R&D. The company found out during development of its scooters that lack of infrastructure is one of the major reasons for electric vehicles to be unsuccessful.
This led the company to develop its own charging infrastructure called the AtherGrid, and once AtherGrid was up and running, Ather Energy launched its scooters 340 and 450 in Bangalore. While the 340 was less-expensive, it has lesser performance and range too. The 450 on the other hand was more expensive but offered more performance and range. Surprisingly, the Ather 450 outsold the 340 by a large margin.
Ather Energy saw the successful launch and delivery of its scooters in Bangalore and will now seek to replicate the same success in Chennai too. The company will start off by installing AtherGrid across Chennai at popular cafes, restaurants, shopping malls, etc.
Then, the Ather 340 and 450 will be launched in Chennai. To encourage adoption of EVs in the city, Ather Energy has announced free charging at Ather Points for all electric vehicles for the first 6 months.
The Ather 340 and 450 feature the best in terms of technology seen so far on electric scooters. A touchscreen up front serves as the main command centre as it allows the rider to navigate, change the display setting and even select the reverse mode which comes in handy more often than not.
It is a connected scooter and can receive system updates and firmware upgrades over cellular network. The system is also smart enough to alert the owner of the vehicle and Ather Energy's team if it needs maintenance in any form. The system also recognises all the charging facilities in the city and marks them on the navigation screen.
This entire Ather Energy ecosystem has been functioning well in Bangalore for months now. Ather Energy will implement the same exact model in Chennai too. Ather Energy is looking to expand to over 30 cities in the next couple of years.
Ravneet Phokela, the CBO at Ather was quoted as saying, "After a successful launch in Bengaluru, we are expanding across the country starting with Chennai. The launch in Chennai is like a homecoming for Ather, as the organization was conceptualised at IIT Madras. We have already started receiving pre-order interest from enthusiasts on the website."
"As we enter this exciting market, we are looking at extending the same go-to-market strategy that we employed in Bengaluru, starting with accepting pre-orders, setting up of the charging infrastructure and the Experience Center, followed by the delivery of vehicles."
Thoughts On Ather Energy Entering Chennai With The Ather 450 and 340
Ather Energy has been almost revolutionary in the electric scooter market in India. The products they have built are of top-notch quality. The performance of the scooters too are better when compared to most petrol-powered scooters and all electric scooters in India. The people in Chennai will now get to be green and yet have fun.