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Ather Energy, co-founded by two IIT graduates, has launched the country’s first intelligent electric scooter.
Backed by investors such as Flipkart’s Sachin and Binny Bansal, Hero Motocorp and Tiger Global, the electric scooter which took nearly five years for development from concept to launch phase, has two versions: 450 and 340. Version 450 will cost ₹1,24,750, while version 340 will cost ₹1,09,750 including taxes.
Tarun Mehta, CEO and Co-Founder, told BusinessLine that the development of the electric scooter involved an investment of ₹200 crore. The company expects to raise an equal amount next year for its next phase of growth. “The existing investors are willing to invest in the next round as well,” he said.
The company has already set up charging stations across Bengaluru. All the charging stations will be in the 4-km range of each other.
Mehta said in a presentation that it took 1.5 million man hours to build the electric scooter. About 42 patents have been filed so far with 122 design registrations.
The vehicle will receive over-the-air updates regularly. The cost of a full charge will be between ₹14 and ₹17. With a single charge, the vehicle can log in 75 km. It will take about three hours for 80 per cent of charge and slightly over four hours for 100 per cent charge.
Features
The vehicle can also be bought through a finance scheme with an interest rate of 8.5 per cent spread over five years. The vehicle can go from zero to 40 kmph in 3.9 seconds with a top speed of 80 km for the 450 version and 70 kmph for the 340 version.
The intelligent electric scooter’s version 450 has a parking assist features which allows riders to reverse the vehicle.
The Ather 450 has a 7-inch touchscreen dashboard that allows onboard navigation with options for alternative routes and saved locations.
It also comes with the Ather app that enables push navigation from the phone to the vehicle dashboard, remote monitoring of the vehicle health and charge monitoring. The 450 version comes with a home-charging point that will be installed by the company at either the owner’s home or workplace.
Ather Energy has also launched a subscription-based maintenance package for the scooters priced at ₹700 per month which will take care of most of the operational expenses.
The company expects to launch the electric scooter in Chennai and Pune next year.
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