Ather Energy hikes prices of its EV scooters in India

(Image: Ather Energy)

Hero MotoCorp-backed electric two-wheeler maker Ather Energy has hiked prices of its electric scooters by about Rs 5,500 in the country. The firm cited rising input costs as the reason for the price increase.

That said, the company is not directly raising the prices of its scooters, instead it is now charging Rs 5,475 for Ather Dot portable charger which was previously sold at just Re 1.

Founded in 2013 by Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain, Ather Energy currently offers two scooters - Ather Energy 450 Plus and Ather 450X. In Bengaluru, Ather Energy 450 Plus is available for Rs 1.31 lakh (ex-showroom) while Ather Energy 450X is priced at Rs 1.5 lakh (ex-showroom). The prices of these scooters vary in each state depending on the electric vehicle (EV) subsidies provided by them.

This move comes amid growing competition in the EV space from companies such as Ola Electric that launched Ola S1 and the Ola S1 Pro electric scooters in August last year and Bounce that unveiled its first e-scooter with swappable batteries in December last year.

In November last year, Ather Energy had announced plans to ramp up production in its Hosur plant by setting up a second manufacturing facility.

The facility is expected to be operational by the end of 2022 and will expand the firm's capacity to 4-lakh vehicles per year from the current 1.20 lakh units, Ather Energy had said at the time.

The Bengaluru-based startup had also said it has committed to invest Rs 650 crore in the next five years to improve operational efficiency and production capacity to meet the exponential surge in demand.

In October 2021, Ather Energy CEO Tarun Mehta said that they crossed the $100 million annual run-rate mark, registering a 12-fold growth over last year. The firm counts Hero MotoCorp, Tiger Global and Flipkart cofounder Sachin Bansal among its investors.