Bangalore-based Ather Energy, a electric smart scooter startup will soon begin its test drives by October or November this year, as the company is all set to launch its first scooter as early as in begining of year 2016.
Labelled as India’s first premium electric smart scooter, Ather-S340 will be the first electric scooter to be completely designed & manufactured in India. The startup has received thousands of enquiries on its website for e-scooter, and will offer a test drive to potential customers starting with Bengaluru, followed by Chennai and Delhi.
The e-scooter will be priced under Rs. 1,00,000, with a formal price announcement likely to be made in Oct-Nov. this year.
The company had received its first seed fund of $1 million in late 2014 from Flipkart founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal and Raju Venkatraman of Medall Healthcare followed by $12 million of another funding from Tiger Global in May this year.
The scooter is touted as ‘Smart Scooter’ as it carries varoius interactive and autonomous features such as its dashboard which carries an Android based platform that enables navigation and a fully personalized dashboard UI. The scooter’s hardware monitors and customizes all vehicle parameters based on rider usage profile.
Typically, electric scooters have a top speed of 25-40kmph, they have poor acceleration, and a battery life of 5,000-6,000 kilometres, and a 6-8 hour charging time. Ather-S340 outrun a typical e-scooter as this scooter has 75 Kmph of top speed with acceleration of 0-60 Kmph in 11s and recharge to about 90 percent capacity in an hour.
If anyone is interested in trying out this smart scooter one can apply for a demo ride here.
Notably, on April 8th, 2015 the Government of India announced FAME India (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric (Hybrid) Vehicles in India – a scheme under the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises. These schemes are indeed helping out statups like Ather Energy. Through this scheme, the government is trying to achieve 6-7 million electric and hybrid vehicles by 2020 by provinding incentives to buyers over cost of such vehicles.