Electric vehicle manufacturer Ather Energy Revenue for the year ended March jumped five-fold to Rs 408 crore from Rs 79 crore in FY11, but its loss widened 47% to Rs 344 crore.
Ather sold 23,408 units electric scooter In FY 2012, a jump of 4.2 times from 5,523 units sold in FY 2011, according to the company’s financials obtained through business intelligence platform Toffler.
Despite this, the company was able to fulfill only 50% of the orders received during the year due to severe constraints regarding the supply of certain critical components, Ather said in its report.
The top-end Ather 450X model accounted for around 81% of the total units sold and the remaining 19% was the Ather 450 Plus model, suggesting good traction among premium scooter buyers.
The EV industry is going through a component shortage crisis as demand for battery cells and chipsets skyrocketed during the pandemic.
Ather’s operating expenses for the year more than doubled to Rs 718 crore, mainly comprised of material costs and employee benefits.
The company said in the financials that it is in the process of increasing the production capacity at its Hosur facility from 120,000 vehicles to 400,000 vehicles per annum by setting up another manufacturing plant in its vicinity.
“With this expansion, this facility is all set to serve as the company’s national manufacturing hub to meet the demand from across the country for the foreseeable future,” it said. “In addition to EV manufacturing, the facility also focuses on lithium-ion battery manufacturing.”
Ather raised $128 million in May in a funding round led by the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), the Indian government’s sovereign wealth fund, and an existing investor.
The Bengaluru-based EV maker expanded from nine retail stores across nine cities to 34 stores across 28 cities at the end of FY22 from nine last year. The geographical spread of the network covers 51% in the South, 21% in the West, 20% in the North and 9% in the East of India. The company said that it has moved away from a company-owned store model to a dealership model to increase its sales and service network.
“These cities have a healthy mix of Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, which have received an overwhelming response from smaller cities,” the company said. “The penetration of EV scooters as a percentage of population is significantly higher in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities as compared to major metros. Big cities like Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai now have multiple Ather Experience Centers which testifies to the depth of demand in these cities.”
Ather said it has also installed 203 fast charging points this year, taking the total number of charging points in 28 states to over 351.
The company said that it has launched the second generation fast charging system this year. The new system increases the charging speed by 50% with a higher level of reliability than the first generation.
The penetration of EV scooters in the overall scooter industry reached 11% in Q4 FY2012, touching 12.5% in March 2012. This, the company said, is faster than anything the industry has predicted.
“However, the outlook on the supply side remains challenging with many unforeseen factors,” Aether said of its outlook. “Lack of battery cells and chips are two major factors that remain a concern for the foreseeable future. Recently, there have been some incidents of EV two-wheelers from other brands having battery and/or other product design and quality issues. Reportedly, the products were recalled by the OEMs in some cases.
Ather’s competitor Ola Electric and other manufacturers like Okinawa and Pure EV have seen their scooters set on fire since March this year, leading to increasing scrutiny in the EV two-wheeler industry.