Ather Energy has officially announced its plans to enter international markets, with the first exports of its flagship Ather 450X scooter to Nepal, commencing soon. In September, our sister publication Autocar Professional had first reported about the company’s plans to go global, with a strong likelihood of neighbouring markets such as Nepal and Bangladesh being the first on its radar.
Ather Energy has revealed that it will establish its first global footprint in Nepal by partnering with Vaidya Energy, a subsidiary of Vaidya’s Organization of Industries and Trading Houses (VOITH) in Nepal. The partnership will see the establishment of the first Ather Experience Centre in Kathmandu next month.
As part of the association, Vaidya Energy will facilitate the sales and service of Ather Energy products in Nepal. Vaidya Energy will also set up fast-charging stations – Ather Grids – as part of the tie-up to alleviate range anxiety among EV owners.
Ather says that its foray into Nepal comes at a time when the country is switching towards cleaner mobility solutions, and being a relatively small market, offers an opportunity to understand a new market in terms of product performance and acceptability.
“For the longest time, we have been getting inbound demand from strong markets such as Latin America, South East Asia and Europe, and we have been warding it off a bit for a while because the domestic opportunity has been so huge,” Ravneet Singh Phokela, chief business officer, Ather Energy, had said in a recent interaction with Autocar Professional. “With finite resources and energy, we prioritised the domestic market. But, our firefighting days in our domestic operations are now over, and today we have the bandwidth to look at international markets," he added.
"The idea is to dip our toes in a market which is not a huge departure from India. If we directly go to Europe, it is a very different market, not only from a consumer but from a product point of view as well. Homologation, for instance, is like a year-long exercise there," said Ather’s chief business officer.
The company will produce these electric scooters at its 4,20,000-unit annual capacity plant in Hosur, Tamil Nadu, and while its export plans have been over three years in the making, being equipped with ample manufacturing capacity gives it the confidence to finally tap into these opportunities.
“We want to launch as a brand, and that is always more difficult. For us, it will not be a short-term volume game, we will build a brand for a long-term play," pointed out Phokela about the company’s international market strategy.