Ather Energy Inaugurates New Electric Scooter Plant in Hosur, Tamil Nadu

Bengaluru based electric two-wheeler (E2W) startup, Ather Energy has started its new 4 lakh square feet E2W manufacturing plant in Hosur, Tamil Nadu.

The company had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the government of Tamil Nadu in December 2019, for a 4 lakh square feet electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing plant.

Guidance TN, Tamil Nadu’s nodal investment promotion and facilitation agency, tweeted yesterday, “Many congratulations @atherenergy on commencing the electric scooter manufacturing in Hosur. This is an important milestone for Tamil Nadu in propelling the electric mobility goals.” The firm also retweeted the post.

Ather Energy’s new plant, backed by the Tamil Nadu government and its EV Policies, will also cater to the firms’ lithium-ion battery manufacturing which is a key area of focus for the company going ahead. The investment is an opportunity for value creation in the sector and will create job opportunities for the region. More than 4,000 employees will be trained in requisite skills in the EV sector as a part of this initiative over the next 5 years.

Back at the time of MoU signing, Tarun Mehta, CEO, Ather Energy stated, “Ather is rapidly scaling up and that it needs to expand its production capacity to meet the growing demand. The new unit will help it meet the demand for the next few years across the country.”

“Tamil Nadu has been a hub for automobile manufacturing, and they have been working closely with us in their effort to build an EV ecosystem. A manufacturing facility at Hosur was an ideal choice considering that it is close to our R&D facilities in Bengaluru and most of the existing and potential future supply base is operating in the region. The availability of a built-up option of our desired scale and proximity helped in the decision making,” he added.

Earlier in November 2020, Ather raised an investment of Rs 260 crore in its latest round of Series D funding led by Sachin Bansal’s investment of Rs 170 crore. That shoved the company, to begin with, its new plant even after the pandemic.

In the following month, Ather had launched its electric 450X scooter in 16 additional cities in India. The company had launched the electric scooter in Mysore, Hubli, Jaipur, Indore, Panaji, Bhubaneswar, Nasik, Surat, Chandigarh, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Guwahati, Nagpur, Noida, Lucknow, and Siliguri.