Ather Energy

Ather Energy Pvt. Ltd.
Type of business Private
Founded 2013 (2013)
Headquarters Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Founder(s) Tarun Mehta
Swapnil Jain
Industry Automotive
Products Electric Vehicles
Website www.atherenergy.com

Ather Energy is the brainchild of IIT graduates Tarun Mehta & Swapnil Jain and is among the few hardware start-ups in India. It was founded in 2013 and has received funding from Hero MotoCorp, Tiger Global and Flipkart founders Sachin & Binny Bansal. Aided by a breakthrough in the in-house designed Lithium-ion battery pack design. The Ather S340 has a touchscreen dashboard connected to the cloud, host of smart features and offers a top speed of 72 kmph. The scooter is designed in-house by Ather and will be manufactured in India. On February 23, 2016, the company unveiled their product to the public at a technology conference called Surge in Bangalore India.[1]

The Ather S340

India’s first truly smart and connected electric scooter, the S340 features everything from remote diagnosis to on-board navigation and rider behaviour. The S340 is at par and in certain cases is better than existing electric and IC scooters in the country.  

The nomenclature S340 refers to S for the Scooter, 3 for the 3KW capacity of the electric motor and 40 for the 40Amp-hour battery capacity.[2] The S340 is powered by a Lithium-Ion battery pack, and features a digital touchscreen dashboard, a lightweight aluminum chassis, and can reach speeds of 72 kmph and a range of up to 60 km. [3] The vehicle can charge up to 80% in 50 minutes in fast charging mode.

Its dashboard contains a Vehicle Control Unit that constantly monitors the scooter’s vitals and records customers’ patterns. The S340 is the first electric scooter whose design and components are built completely from scratch, and best caters to Indian driving conditions. The Ather S340 has a Linux based dashboard with 7 inch touch screen that integrates with cloud-based data through a 3G SIM card to enable constant data transfer and updates.[4] The rider can create his user profile on the scooter, access on-board navigation and use the touch screen to switch between two modes - Sports and Economy.[5] Different sensors installed in the scooter allow it to send all the information about rider behavior and riding pattern like braking, acceleration, mileage, efficiency to the cloud.

Ather energy can also carry out upgrades on the scooter over the air due to 24X7 internet connectivity, without the need to bring the scooter to the manufacturer.[6]

The Official Unveil

The official unveil of the product happened at the Surge Conference Bangalore in India on 23 February 2016. The conference was attended by 5000+ people from 72 different countries and 433 startups exhibited on the Surge floor across two days of the conference.[7] During the talk, Ather Energy CEO and Co-founder, Tarun Mehta mentioned that every component of the scooter like the battery management system, battery pack, suspension, charger, dashboard has been designed in-house by the company.[8]

FAME Scheme by Government of India

The vehicle is covered under Government of India's FAME (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles) scheme that offers incentives to the electric and hybrid vehicles ranging from Rs.1,800 to Rs.29,000 for scooters and motorcycles and Rs.1.38 Lac for cars. FAME is a part of National Electric Mobility Mission Plan by Government of India.[9] As per the scheme the customer can get the incentive in form of lower cost of the hybrid or electric vehicle at the time of purchase and the manufacturer can claim the incentive from the government at the end of each month.

Production and Sale

The company plans to set up Experience Centers for customers, starting with the city of Bangalore. It will deviate from the conventional dealerships model. It has announced an online-only purchase model for selling the product with doorstep delivery and service; and is setting up its manufacturing unit in Whitefield, Bangalore to commence production by the end of this year.[10]

Their new manufacturing unit in Bangalore will also have a battery unit and the capacity to produce 50 scooters a day at peak production. The company is yet to disclose the price of the scooter.

The Funding

In the beginning of 2014, it received Rs 45 lakh from the Technology Development Board under Department of Science and Technology, IIT Madras and Srini V Srinivasan, IIT alumnus and founder of Aerospike.[11] In December 2014, Flipkart founders, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal invested $1 million as the seed capital.[12] Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal expressed a positive sentiment towards the company and showed inclination towards energy-efficient vehicles.

In May 2015, the company received US$12 million (Rs.75.33 crore) from Tiger Global for investments in development, testing, production and the launch of the vehicle.[13]

In October 2016, Hero MotoCorp invested US$30.5 million (Rs. 205 crore) as Series B round of funding. This new round of capital infusion will be used by Ather to sustain momentum in its journey of building a future-ready product platform, and to accelerate the infrastructure and ecosystem development around electric vehicles in the country. [14]

References

  1. ↑ "Ather Energy showcases S340 India's first smart scooter at Surge 2016. FirstPost".
  2. ↑ "Make in India: Ather to launch S340 smart e-scooter on 23rd February". Zigwheels.
  3. ↑ "Ather Energy S340 is India’s first smart electric scooter". The Indian Express. 2016-02-24. Retrieved 2016-03-15.
  4. ↑ "Ather to roll out its first smart electric scooter in 3 cities by 2016-end". Economic Times.
  5. ↑ "Ather Energy s340 smart electric scooter Bangalore launch". IndianExpress.
  6. ↑ "Ather Energy reveals S340 connected e-scooter". Autocar Pro News Desk.
  7. ↑ "5,000+ attendees from 72 countries on their way to SURGE". SurgeConf.
  8. ↑ "Ather Energy".
  9. ↑ "FAME India Scheme launched to offer sops on hybrid , e-vehicles". Economic Times.
  10. ↑ "Ather Energy mimics Tesla's model to sell its smart electric scooters". Business Standard.
  11. ↑ "Flipkart founders invest $1 million in Ather Energy". The Hindu.
  12. ↑ "Flipkart founders lead $1M investment in electric scooter startup Ather Energy". Tech Crunch.
  13. ↑ "Bansals backed Ather Energy raises $12M from Tiger Global". Business Standard.
  14. ↑ "Hero MotoCorp To Invest Up To ₹ 205 Crore In Ather Energy". NDTV Auto.

http://storybaar.com/tag/ather-energy/

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.