The country’s largest two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp on Friday announced an additional investment of ₹84 crore in electric scooter maker Ather Energy.
“Continuing to build on its series of new initiatives, Hero MotoCorp… [has] announced a further investment of ₹84 crore ($11 million) in Ather Energy, taking up its shareholding in the company” to 34.6%, Hero MotoCorp said in a statement. Prior to the investment, its shareholding in Ather was 31.3%.
Rajat Bhargava, Head of Emerging Mobility Business Unit (EMBU), Global Business & Strategy, Hero MotoCorp, said, “We are excited to see the growth of Ather Energy in the recent years. We see immense potential for them to expand their market even further, especially given the likely growth of electric vehicles (EV) in the near future. In addition to our efforts of developing a robust external eco-system for EVs, we are also aggressively working on our internal EV program.”
In a separate statement, Ather said that the funds raised from Hero MotoCorp were an extension of its Series C round that was led by Sachin Bansal. It added that the company was now entering an aggressive expansion phase with its flagship product the Ather 450X, and looking to scale to 20 cities by the end of 2021. The Ather 450X will soon be available in cities like Hyderabad, Pune, Delhi and Mumbai, with deliveries beginning in October 2020.
“To meet the projected demand in the coming years, Ather is opening a new manufacturing facility in Hosur, which is designed to produce 1,00,000 units annually, and is scalable to half a million units. Ather Energy will also set up Ather Grid fast charging points across the country over the next 5 years, making public charging easy and accessible to all electric vehicle owners,” the firm said.
Tarun Mehta, Co-founder & CEO, Ather Energy added, “We are in a high growth phase of our journey, and while the last few months have been challenging, we have not altered our expansion plans. Our geographic expansion and the roll-out schedule for the Ather 450X are on track, and we will be using these funds to invest in our facilities to meet the demand we have seen for the Ather 450X across the country.”
