Following the lockdown relaxations announced by the government, across the country, electric vehicle maker Ather Energy has restarted its operations in Chennai, a week after it resumed work in Bengaluru, with all precautions.
The move comes after the governments in both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu announced relaxations for two-wheeler and four-wheeler showrooms, service centres, and firms dealing in automobile spare parts.
The R&D centre in Bengaluru and the experience centres in both the cities are open to a restricted number of employees and customers.
The experience centres will be open for limited hours and operate with limited staff onsite to comply with health and safety guidelines. Deliveries of Ather 450 have begun in a limited number in both the cities and will be scaled up depending on the resumption of operations of ancillary partners, and permissions for inter-State transport of vehicles.
To address the economic impact of the lockdown, Ather will continue to innovate on its ownership models, like increasing financing options for consumers and introducing batteries on subscription.
Ravneet Phokela, chief business officer, Ather Energy, said, “We are slowly opening up our retail stores and offices and are hoping that some semblance of normalcy will be achieved in the coming months. We have a lot of work ahead of us to expand pan-India over the coming months, and thankfully, the lockdown has not affected those timelines dramatically. We are now working on a slightly revised timeline of Q4 of 2020 to begin deliveries of the Ather 450X across India.”
This year Ather will be available in eight more cities (Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Kochi, Ahmedabad, Kolkata) with their flagship model Ather 450X scooter.