EV maker sees strong consumer response in Jaipur, where it has begun test rides before opening a new Ather Space showroom next month.
21 Mar 2021 | 9841 Views | By Autocar Professional Bureau
Bangalore-based Ather Energy is literally going places. The EV maker, which opened its brand-new smart manufacturing plant in Hosur, Tamil Nadu last month, is fast expanding its retail footprint across the country. The latest is Jaipur, Rajasthan. Earlier this month it opened a showroom in Kochi, Kerala.
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Bangalore-based Ather Energy is literally going places. The EV maker, which opened its brand-new smart manufacturing plant in Hosur, Tamil Nadu last month, is fast expanding its retail footprint across the country. The latest is Jaipur, Rajasthan. Earlier this month it opened a showroom in Kochi, Kerala. This follows the opening of its first showroom in Pune and Ahmedabad in February, and in Mumbai in January 2021.
Ather has now commenced test-rides of the Ather 450X at Durgapura, Jaipur in association with Akhand Distributors, Jaipur’s leading retailer.
Ather Space, the EV maker’s retail or experience centre as it calls it, will open in early April. The company says the early test rides have commenced due to the surge in bookings, enquiries, and test ride requests from Jaipur. The Experience Centre is to come up at BL Tower-2 on Tonk Road near Durgapura Flyover. Vehicle deliveries are to begin within the next couple of weeks.
According to Ravneet Singh Phokela, Chief Business Officer, Ather Energy, “Jaipur is an important market for us and we have seen a strong demand and interest from the consumers since the launch of Ather 450X. The test-ride requests and bookings were so overwhelming that we wanted to start our operations in Jaipur earlier than previously planned. We are pleased to partner with Akhand Distributors who have been a great support and their enthusiasm has made this possible. We will soon open our Experience Center in Jaipur, meanwhile consumers can enjoy the test-rides and pre-order the 450X.”
Ather Energy says it will install 3-4 fast-charging points, Ather Grid, across key hotspots in the city by next month and double it by the end of 2021. The company is looking to partner with cafés, restaurants, tech parks, malls, and gyms which can offer EV owners’ easy accessibility, curb range anxiety, and ease the adoption of electric vehicles in Jaipur. More than 120 public fast charging points by Ather Energy are up across more than 17 cities in India.
The Ather 450X will be available at the experience centre. The scooter is powered with a 6kW PMSM motor, a new 2.9 kWh lithium-ion battery, and comes with 4 riding modes. In addition to Eco, Ride, and Sport, there’s the high-performance mode, 'Warp'. The Ather 450X can accelerate from 0-40kph in just 3.3 sec in Warp mode, making it the quickest scooter in the 125cc category. The Ather 450X will also charge 50% faster than before at 1.5km per minute, making it the fastest charging rate in the electric two-wheeler category.
Additionally, the electric scooter has a 4G SIM card and Bluetooth connectivity, allowing riders to manage phone calls and music on the touchscreen dashboard. The new 7-inch touchscreen dashboard, comes with a colour depth of 16M and a Snapdragon Quad-Core processor. Ather 450X utilises Android Open Source to offer Google map navigation, on-board diagnostics, and other unique features like Over-the-air updates, Auto Indicator off and Guide-me-home lights.
Ather Energy also offers a lower-powered Ather 450 Plus which offers a top speed of 70kph and a true range of 70km in Eco mode.
While the 450X (ex-showroom Jaipur) costs Rs 159,524, the 450 Plus costs Rs 140,514.