Ramped-up production and expanded retail reach through network expansion paying dividends to smart e-scooter maker.
30 Sep 2022 | 10305 Views | By Ajit Dalvi
Electric scooter manufacturer Ather Energy has reported record monthly sales of 7,435 units in September 2022. This is its highest-ever monthly number since the company began commercial sales and constitutes a 247% year-on-year increase, albeit on a low year-ago base.
Importantly, for the company, its September numbers are a ...
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Electric scooter manufacturer Ather Energy has reported record monthly sales of 7,435 units in September 2022. This is its highest-ever monthly number since the company began commercial sales and constitutes a 247% year-on-year increase, albeit on a low year-ago base.
Importantly, for the company, its September numbers are a 15.43% month-on-month growth over August 2022’s 6,441 units, which were the previous monthly highest for the Bangalore-based EV start-up. In the first six months of the ongoing FY2023, Ather Energy’s cumulative sales are 27,226 units, which makes for a monthly average of 4,537 units.
Production ramp up
What is helping Ather achieve better numbers is the improved supplies to its showrooms across the country. Speaking to Autocar Professional last month, Ravneet S Phokela, chief business officer, Ather Energy, had said most supply chain challenges have been resolved and the company is aiming at full manufacturing capacity utilisation – 10,000 units per month for the remaining six months of FY2023. It will then graduate to starting off its second production line within the 400,000-unit annual capacity Hosur plant in Tamil Nadu.
“With the supply chain ramping up, we are hoping to get the waiting period on our products down to 2-4 weeks depending upon the city,” he said.
Aggressive network expansion underway
Ather is also benefitting from its network expansion programme. The EV OEM, which has outlined plans to expand from 56 outlets in 50 cities at present to 120 showrooms in 95 cities by end-FY2023, opened four new experience centres in Ranchi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Rajkot, cities which are seeing a strong interest in electric two-wheelers.
E-two-wheeler market in full charge
The electric two-wheeler market in India is seeing action aplenty. Hero MotoCorp, the latest of the established ICE OEMs to enter the EV market, after Bajaj Auto and TVS Motor Co, yesterday announced plans to jointly manufacture electric motorcyles with Zero Motorcycles of the USA. Meanwhile, TVS and Bajaj are also seeing sustained demand for their iQube and Chetak e-scooters. Earlier today, LML confirmed its re-entry into the two-wheeler market with the reveal of concept EVs.
Retail sales of electric two-wheelers have crossed a record 225,000 units in the first five months of FY2023 and given the pace of demand for these eco-friendly set of wheels, the 600,000 figure just might be crossed in FY2023.
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