Ather Energy to use Siemens Xcelerator software to bring new products to market faster

Siemens Digital Industries Software has announced that smart electric scooter maker Ather Energy has expanded its adoption of the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio of industry software to help the company reduce its design and engineering cycle time, improve product quality and achieve faster time to market.

Set up in 2013, by Indian institute of Technology (IIT) Madras alumni, Tarun Mehta, and Swapnil Jain, Ather Energy launched the Ather 450, followed by the new flagship offering Ather 450X in 2020, the 450S in 2023 and Ather’s special edition scooter, the Ather 450 Apex in January 2024.

“In the fast-evolving EV industry, speed to market is an important lever to succeed.  Siemens' expanded PLM management enables parallel processing of engineering deliverables, a departure from the sequential approach, thereby reducing the lead time for introducing new products and features,” said Swapnil Jain, Co-founder and CTO at Ather Energy.

“Startups are the lifeblood of the electrification revolution in mobility and we’re proud to work alongside the Ather Energy team to help them expand their capabilities to bring their breakthrough products to the Indian market,” said Robert Jones, Executive Vice President, Global Sales and Customer Success, Siemens Digital Industries Software, during a recent visit to the Ather Energy facility.

Jones added, “Our work with Ather Energy is another proof point of leading innovators and pioneers choosing the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio as the platform of choice for product development in the electrification of mobility and helping the world achieve cleaner, more sustainable transportation.”

 Ather Energy adopted Siemens’ Teamcenter software for Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) in 2018 to help it achieve its critical key performance indictors (KPIs) including faster time to market, reducing its design and engineering cycle time with the removal of design iterations and adopting a right first-time approach. Since then, the Ather Energy team has also taken advantage of Simcenter STAR-CCM+ software for Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Simcenter physical testing solutions to help with its in-house testing regime for durability and noise, vibration and harness (NVH). Most recently, the Ather Energy vehicle engineering team has moved to Siemens’ NX software for new product development and engineering from its legacy system for all existing and new vehicle platforms.

 “The simulations and virtual testing we perform using Siemens’ tools enable us to crush timing and provide us with great savings in resources and money spent on repeating testing. The stack-up analysis enables us to get the design right the first time and avoids engineering changes. We are looking at expanding the Siemens tools into controlling the manufacturing processes by introducing the management of ‘Bill of Processes’,” concluded Swapnil Jain.

ATHER LOOKING TO UP THE ANTE WITH NEW PRODUCTS

In the fiscal year to date, Ather Energy has sold 81,862 units (from April 1, 2023 to January 31, 2024) and is currently placed third amongst the 180 e-two-wheeler manufacturers in India. In CY2023, the company retailed a total of 104,443 units, up 101.60% (CY2022: 51,806 units), which gave  it a 12% share of the Indian e-two-wheeler market’s record sales of 857,052 units.

While Ather's rapid growth has been in tandem with the Indian electric two-wheeler market, with an aggressive Bajaj Auto hard on its heels, it is already begun protecting its turf. Not only has it recently slashed the price of the 450S e-scooter by Rs 20,000 to Rs 109,000 but it also launched the new Apex 450 in early January. Priced at Rs 189,000, the Apex 450 uses the same 3.7kWh battery pack as the 450X but claimed IDC range has gone up to 157km, due to the new regenerative braking system. The company recently received a shot in the arm with early investor Hero MotoCorp set to increase its stake to 39.7% in January 2024.

Ather now plans to roll out its family scooter named Rizta on Ather Community Day, slated to be either in February or March. Expected to be priced between Rs 110,000 and under Rs 130,000, Ather will expand its market reach with the Rizta which will compete with the high-selling TVS iQube, Bajaj Chetak and Vida V1 Pro in the below-Rs 130,000 price category, which benefits from FAME 2 subsidies.