The world’s biggest two-wheeler company by volume – Hero MotoCorp – has invested in Ather Energy, the fledgeling EV brand to the tune of Rs 84 Crore.
Ather are making big moves in the Indian market with their electric scooters seeing huge demand in every city that they have established a presence. Now in the Series C round of raising investments, they have seen Hero MotoCorp put in quite the chunk of change into the brand. This investment brings Hero’s stake in Ather Energy up to 34.58% from 31.27%. That money will be useful too, as Ather have some big plans for the country. They are looking to introduce their 450X flagship to 20 cities by the end of 2021, with Hyderabad, Pune, Delhi and Mumbai, getting the Ather 450X next – by October 2020. Other plans include a new manufacturing facility in Hosur, which will have an initial production capacity of 100,000 units annually, and which can be increased to 500,000 units. Ather Energy will also set up Ather Grid fast charging points across the country over the next 5 years, in order to help improve charging infrastructure for their customers.
Tarun Mehta, Co-founder & CEO, Ather Energy said the following regarding this development, “We are in a high growth phase of our journey, and while the last few months have been challenging, we have not altered our expansion plans. Our geographic expansion and the roll-out schedule for the Ather 450X are on track, and we will be using these funds to invest in our facilities to meet the demand we have seen for the Ather 450X across the country.”
Commenting on the investment, Rajat Bhargava, Head of Emerging Mobility Business Unit (EMBU), Global Business & Strategy, Hero MotoCorp, said “We are excited to see the growth of Ather Energy in the recent years. We see immense potential for them to expand their market even further, especially given the likely growth of electric vehicles (EV) in the near future. In addition to our efforts of developing a robust external eco-system for EVs, we are also aggressively working on our internal EV program. Our aim is to provide accessible electric mobility to customers across the globe. Sustainability and clean, green environment remain central to our vision to be the future of mobility.”
Senior Correspondent at Bike India Magazine
A travel-junkie who loves rock-n-roll and football, and spends endless hours playing video games in his free time
Harket Suchde – who has written 162 posts on Bike India.
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