@all:
Yesterday was the second anniversary of the first ever Ather 450s rolling out to customers. 2 years back, our first 10 customers took delivery of their Ather 450s from our factory at Bengaluru and began a journey that had been our dream for years since we began Ather. And what a journey it has been:
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A super community of 9k people (and growing) has come together. It’s rare to see a community form around a product and continue to grow in India. Through our experiences with the Open House events before starting sales, we were clear that we don’t just want customers but owners who are a part of the story. I am grateful to everybody for their passion, love and feedback over the years. Believe it or not - as the base grows the gravitational pull to behave like an ‘auto’ company is intense
and it’s the community every time that saves us. -
15 million km and growing! The 450s have already clocked 15 million kms on the road and are adding close to 2 million kms every month right now. I believe this is the highest amount of data on any 2W ever in India, allowing us to improve your 450’s experience with every passing month. Next milestone: 100 million kms!
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Speaking of which: OTA updates. Ather was the first (and kind of still is the only one) to plan software upgrades based on the data and learnings from the vehicles on-road. We had planned roughly an OTA update/quarter and over the last 2 years we have pushed 7 OTAs out. Many of these were shaped by the feedback from the community (that section around feature wants/requests is keenly watched
) and many many more in the pipeline for the coming years. -
A dozen Open Houses and Owners’ Meets: this is the thing I miss the most with the community now. We have had some terrific conversations at each and every one, and the Warp mode can trace some of its origins to one of the BLR Owners’ Meets
These events bring the community together like nobody’s business and even with the pandemic around us, this has continued in some sense with a bunch of riding events around the cities.
And finally the big milestone since then: a new product launch! Life has come full circle now. Starting from the launch of Ather 450, we are now gearing up for the first delivery event of the Ather 450X, its super cousin.
- Growing from a single delivery event in BLR, we are now preparing for 15 delivery events all over the country.
- From the first 10 customers, the invite list is growing to several thousand enthusiasts all over the country.
- From a community largely based out of Bengaluru and Chennai we now finally grow to all over India.
Our focus remains the same through all of this: building the electric world out, ASAP. And we are grateful for all of your support through the years.
Exciting times ahead!
Tarun
. May many more success be in your court.
