Bengaluru based Electric scooter startup Ather Energy begins delivery of Electric scooters today in Bengaluru. Out of handful 10 selected customers, Flipkart Founder Sachin Bansal was one of them to get keys of all new Ather 450. The delivery event happened in Ather Energy’s Whitefield Factory in Bengaluru where select customers and media houses were invited.
The company had also arranged a tour through its Factory (Final Assembly Line) and the anxious customers who had pre-booked this electric scooter drove home the all new Ather 450 electric scooter. Prior to delivering the intelligent, electric scooters, the company set up private charging stations at their 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.
Quote from Tarun Mehta, Co-founder & CEO:
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.
Taking an innovative go-to-market route, customers had the option of placing orders through the company website along with booking their test ride slots; nearly 60% of consumers choosing to place orders online. Ather is also offering a first of its kind, subscription plan, Ather One. The comprehensive plan, makes owning and riding the Ather 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 rolling on to more markets in the new year. Ather has already started working on the charging network, AtherGrid in Chennai and expect to set up their experience centre, AtherSpace by Q2 2019 which will be followed by other cities.
Ather Energy opened pre-orders in early June, 2018, and has sold out its inventory for the rest of the year. The company has completed nearly 3500 test rides at its experience centre, AtherSpace in Indiranagar, Bengaluru 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.
About Ather 450
The Ather 450 is designed for city riding conditions, it comes with a top speed of 80 km/hr, a range of 75 km and one of the quickest accelerations of 3.9 seconds from 0-40 km/hr in the scooter category. Also for the first time in the category, Ather 450 comes with parking assist, which allows riders to reverse into tight parking spots.
The key differentiator of the Ather 450 are its intelligent features, seamless charging and ownership experience. The Ather 450 has a 7” touchscreen dashboard that allows onboard navigation with options of alternative routes and saved locations. It comes with the Ather app that enables push navigation from the phone to the vehicle dashboard, remote monitoring of the vehicle’s health and charge status. Finally, with the over-the-air (OTA) updates functionality, the vehicle is capable of improving over time with continuous upgrades and addition of new features and functionalities.
