Mumbai: Electric scooter manufacturer Ather Energy, backed by HeroMoto Corp. and Sachin and Binny Bansal, will double its annual capacity by the end of FY23 to about 3 lakh units if the current demand trend continues, a top official said.
The manufacturer of Hosur, Tamil Nadu-based EV, currently has an installed capacity of just over 1 lakh per year (9,200 units per month), but has a much lower number. It has only one model, the Ather 450X, with a price of 1.5 lakh, which is almost double the price of a petrol scooter.
‘Currently we can roll out 9,200 units per month from the Hosur plant we commissioned in February. Given the increase in demand / inquiries, we plan to double our capacity … towards the end of the next fiscal, “said Tarun Mehta, co-founder and CEO of Ather Energy. The Hosur plant has enough land to increase the capacity to 5 lakh units per year.
The company hopes to reach the full phase of the first phase with this fiscal, and plans to triple it by the end of FY23. The first phase covers an area of 1.2 lakh square feet, and the plan is to expand it to 4 lakh square feet at the end of FY23 and triple production, Mehta explained.
Ather has so far invested 130 million euros in the plant and 650 million since the launch of the company in 2013. It started with a small plant in the city of Bengaluru, from where it launched the first model Ather 450 in 2018, which did not more in production.
The electric two-wheel drive industry is a jumble with nearly 20 players, selling a negligible 25,600 units in 2020, nearly 6 percent lower than in 2019. With just over 8,100 units, Hero Electric (from HeroMoto Corp)) led the market in 2020, followed by Okinawa with approximately 5,600 units and Ampere with a volume of just over 4,400 units, according to industry data.
While Mehta refused to share the sales figures, according to industry data, Ather sold only 2,972 units in 2020, an increase of 30 percent over 2019, and is still the fourth largest player in the industry.
Source: Telangana Today