EV Maker Ather Energy Picks Maharashtra For New Rs 2,000 Crore Facility

Homegrown EV maker Ather Energy on 26 June announced its decision to set up a manufacturing facility worth Rs 2,000 crore in Maharashtra’s Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district.

Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis told the media that the Bengaluru-based company had chosen a land parcel in the second phase of the Aurangabad Industrial City (AURIC), located in Bidkin, near Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar city.

The latter, formerly known as Aurangabad, is a major city located in the state’s Marathwada region. The urban agglomeration is home to several automotive production facilities located in Waluj and Shendra Industrial Zones, along with the two phases of AURIC located in Shendra and Bidkin. The latter, a special economic zone, is a part of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor.

Fadnavis in a post on the social media platform X said that the upcoming facility will have a production capacity of making more than 10 lakh electric scooters and battery packs annually.

"When operationalised, the manufacturing facility will create nearly 4,000 jobs in direct as well as indirect manner," Fadnavis posted.

"Moreover, since the company has chosen a site in AURIC and many other companies are showing interest in the area owing to its close proximity to the newly built Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Expressway, there is no doubt that Marathwada will now drive the Maharashtra growth story ahead," he added.

Ather Energy’s co-founder, Swapnil Jain, expressed excitement about their new investments in Maharashtra.

"With our expanding product portfolio and the increasing demand for our products, we decided to strategically diversify our production capabilities to an additional location that will be closer to more markets in the country," he said on X.

Started in 2013 by two Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras graduates, Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain, Ather Energy’s product range at present consists of four electric scooter variants.

The company is also involved in setting up electric grids capable of charging electric cars as well as electric scooters.

The electric scooter maker has operational production facilities at Whitefield in Bengaluru, Karnataka, and another in Tamil Nadu’s Hosur.

Although the company formally announced its decision to set up its third facility in Maharashtra now, speculations about the same were already being made on social media handles a fortnight ago.

Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Arvind Bellad said it was disappointing to see a Bengaluru-based company planning to set up its third plant in Maharashtra instead of Karnataka.

"Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Industries Minister M B Patil must act swiftly, engage with Ather, and persuade them to bring the plant to Karnataka. Hubballi-Dharwad, with existing facilities of Marcopolo, Tata Motors etc can become a manufacturing cluster," he said on X.

Mohandas Pai, former chief financial officer of Infosys, reposted the Karnataka BJP leader’s comment and added his remark: "Very true. Ather, Ola, Kaynes are Karnataka cos (companies) which relocated because of failed outreach (on the part of the Karnataka state government). Karnataka created the first EV (electric vehicle) policy, failed to follow up, lost the EV industry."