Ather Energy Completes 2 Years, to Roll out Exchange Program

Ather Energy recently completed two years of operations and is planning to come up with an exchange program to attract scooter owners to upgrade to an EV.

The electric vehicle startup Ather Energy on June 5, 2020, completed two years of operations since the launch of its flagship electric scooter, the Ather 450 in Bengaluru. The company, in a press statement, said it is planning to come up with a vehicle exchange program to attract scooter owners to upgrade to an electric vehicle. The EV maker is also piloting other ownership which will be rolled out over the next few months.

The company had earlier rolled out the battery subscription model in January 2020 with the launch of Ather 450X under which the consumer pays for the scooter, without the cost of the battery. The battery is paid for under a monthly subscription model.

The startup will be expanding to eight new cities with new financing and ownership models. The company is gearing up to open experience centres through dealerships in Hyderabad, Kochi, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Coimbatore, NCR, etc.

Tarun Mehta, Co-founder and CEO Ather Energy said “The lockdown helped us reevaluate and reassess our long term goals. We are going to open as many avenues as possible to promote electric vehicles. From introducing new ownership models and to continue offering the most varied financing options, we will ensure that owning an E2W is a hassle-free proposition for any consumer. Exciting times ahead for Ather and the EV industry”

The company’s new 400,000 sq. ft. manufacturing facility in Hosur will also open later in the year. The electric scooter company currently has three products in its portfolio- Ather 450, Ather 450 Plus, and Ather 450X.

In May, we had reported that the strap had entered into a partnership with dockless mobility solution provider Bounce for a scooter selling and sharing initiative ‘Peer to Peer’ (P2P) with the pilot program taking off from Bengaluru. As per the deal, Hero MotoCorp-backed company will sell its ‘Ather 450’ e-scooter through Bounce’s website and customers can book this scooter for Rs 499.

The partnership will further enable new Ather 450 owners to monetise the idle time of their vehicle by listing their vehicle on the Bounce App. The owners can select the number of days they want to list Ather 450 for rent, share it with users of the Bounce platform and get compensated for it from Bounce.