EV maker Ather to boost charging infra

Electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Ather Energy has drawn up plans to rapidly increase fast-charging infrastructure in public places in different parts of the country during FY22, according to a top official.

“The acceptable rate of EVs in the country is growing rapidly,” said Tarun Mehta, CEO and co-founder told The Hindu.

“We have seen lot of growth in our sales volume in the last four to five months. In line with it, we are ramping up the public fast-power charging stations to almost 500 by March 2022,” he added.

“These facilities will come up in cafes, restaurants or in shopping malls,” said Mr. Mehta.

In the first two-and-half years, Ather Energy had built 40 fast-power charging stations in select few cities and in the last six months, it touched 100. Currently, it stands at 130 stations in 11 cities. Going forward, the company would be installing at least 30 new charging stations every month and end the current fiscal with 500 stations in 40 cities, he said.

While refusing to disclose the sales figures, he said month-on-month Ather Energy, with two variants, had posted over five times growth and quarter-on-quarter it saw an increase of three times.

The company is mulling sharing sales volume with Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers in the coming months.

When pointed out that Ather’s vehicles were priced higher than those of competitors, he said, “As volume grows, we will think of coming out with low-cost variants.”

The Hosur plant has an annual installed capacity of 1.1 lakh EVs and plans are on to expand it to 4 lakh units. Currently, the plant is functioning in a single shift and it might go in for a second shift post second wave of COVID-19. “The first indigenously-built electric vehicle from this plant will hit the market only by next fiscal,” he added.

Source: thehindu