Flipkart founder’s firm unveils electric scooters
Bengaluru-based startup Ather Energy has opened pre-orders for its flagship electric scooters, hoping to build a beachhead in the world’s largest two-wheeler market that will allow it to launch a mass-market vehicle within two years. Some 18 million petrol-driven scooters and motorcycles are sold in India annually, clogging roads in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru with some of the world’s worst traffic and highest levels of pollution.
Electric bikes so far have played a tiny role in those sales and Ather is the first major venture to follow US electric car producer Tesla in designing and building its own bike from scratch. Ather has raised $43 million in funding so far from some of India’s best-known investors, including the country’s No.1 two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp, Walmart partner Flipkart’s founders and hedge fund and investment firm Tiger Global Management. It has started building charging points in India’s tech-heavy global outsourcing hub, Bengaluru, and priced its scooters at more than double the average cost of those currently on the market - even after including an almost 20 percent subsidy from the government.
The company plans to put 2,000 of the scooters on the road through August and up to 100,000 over the next two and a half years, while also expanding to nearby Chennai and Pune. “I think it’s better to go after a segment limited to a city, where the users can be reached in a direct way, build a brand around there and then (go) wider and wider,” Chief Executive Officer Tarun Mehta told Reuters on the sidelines of the launch.
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