Ather Energy delivers its first scooter in Bangalore

After its launch on June 5, 2018, Ather Energy begins deliveries of its scooters today in Bangalore. Prior to delivering the electric scooters, the company had set up private charging stations at the owner’s residences. With the multiple fast public chargers set up by Ather, the owners will have free charging available both at home and across the city.

During the launch, Tarun Mehta, co-founder and CEO said, “The past few weeks have been incredible for everyone at Ather Energy. Today marks the real launch of the company as consumers take their first scooters home and begin to ride them. We will continue to deliver more Ather 450s in batches to the rest of our pre-orders in the coming months. We still have a lot to learn about the final ownership and day to day usage of our vehicles and are looking forward to the next phase of our growth.”

Through an innovative go-to-market route, Ather customers had the option of placing orders through the company’s website along with booking their test ride slots. The company claims that nearly 60% of consumers chose to place orders online.

One of the early customers of Ather 450

Ather is also offering a first of its kind, subscription plan, Ather One, which is aimed at making the ownership and riding experience of the scooters a hassle-free experience. The plan covers data costs, charging costs both at home and in public and it includes periodic doorstep service of the vehicles and cost of common spare parts. The automotive startup announced its expansion plans starting with Chennai and then to more markets by the next year.

Ather has reportedly started working on the charging network, AtherGrid in Chennai and expects to set up its experience centre, AtherSpace by Q2 2019, which will be followed by other cities. Ather Energy had opened its pre-orders in early June, 2018, and has sold out its inventory for the rest of the year. The company claims to have completed nearly 3500 test rides at its experience centre, AtherSpace, in Indiranagar, Bangalore and has been consistently adding more charging locations to AtherGrid, its electric vehicle charging network. Electric vehicle owners can now find 22 charging points across the city on their AtherGrid app.

Ather Energy founded in 2013 by IIT Madras graduates - Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain is backed by the founders of Flipkart, Tiger Global and Hero Motocorp. Ather Energy claims to have 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.

Also read: Ather Energy launches premium, feature-laden 340, 450 e-scooters