Don’t mean to dwell on any of your pointers because end of the day, these are just opinions and everyone is bound to have a different one to offer, but as far as the advert is concerned, not sure if you were on the Forum back then, but the ad came out at a time when there was no real competition for Ather, and the common ask on the Forum was a mass media awareness campaign to bring EVs into public conscience, and surely when the monthly sale numbers were significantly lower than today’s. So I really am not sure if it was because they saw dropping sales 
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I think this may be seasonal because of Diwali when demand increases after which it sort of tapers away (have seen this with the data of atleast one other major automotive company). Maybe take a look at other OEMs and even Ather in 2020 to see if this tapering pattern is consistent.
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I think this may be seasonal because of Diwali when demand increases after which it sort of tapers away (have seen this with the data of atleast one other major automotive company). Maybe take a look at other OEMs and even Ather in 2020 to see if this tapering pattern is consistent.
Ather sales grew from Oct to Dec in 2020 without such seasonal decline. Coming to other brands, TVS had their best EV sales in Dec 2021, and it’s continuing in Jan 2022. Ampere sales continue to grow month over month from Oct to Jan.
With sales expansion to more cities each month and production capacity increasing drastically, Ather sales should have gone higher. There is a reason why that is not happening. I would like to see Ather sales grow to their current production capacity (10K per month) and then 4 lakh units per year quickly. That will really push the laggards like Hero, Bajaj, Honda, Suzuki, etc… to develop EVs and set up production capacities.
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Ampere had a significant portfolio of low speed scooters that sold in volumes at Urban and Rural areas.
Average waiting time in MH is 45-60 days per the recent updates some pre-order customers got from dealers there. The pipeline seems to be good, but assembly capacity seems to be constrained.
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Perfectly agree
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There’s a longer post coming on this (been busy recently) but the Oct-Jan numbers are not seasonality. Demand hit a peak exceeding 6K units in Oct and practically hasn’t come down.
What’s happened is that we had the largest decommit ever by 1 electronics partner in end-Oct. Cell supply has been also pretty erratic so had to accept massive line-downs Nov onwards to balance the constricted supply. We even slowed down on new EC openings because customer lead times had sky-rocketed and it was getting difficult to manage old order wait times.
In the meantime, decided to bite the bullet and pay crazy spot prices for some of these components and resume production at a low level this month. On the bright side, new orders went in the system for all suppliers starting July and with lead times of ~40 weeks for bottleneck components we should start seeing results starting April. Also much better relationships with partners across the board now.
Massive ramp-up ahead, demand stopped being a problem a long time back - it’s mostly about managing supply chain well now if you have a good product. Hence, the plant expansion. The minute we cross 13K units/month the current plant will be 100% utilized and that number (13K) looks barely 30 ECs away. All of them are in the pipeline in the next 5 months.
Charging infra - yeah, donno what I was smoking (wasn’t sitting very close to ops back then) when I said 6500 units years back. Easy to announce #s when you haven’t built much yet or think that it’s totally sensible to burn 100s of millions $ pre-revenue 
It’s gone through it’s own design hell (metrics look stable only now) and will expand. But will take ~2+ years to get to that large a number still.
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That is something horrible. Hope that the hurdle clears soon.
I started reading the post, and, I thought you are going way too serious. 
Two years is still a long time, and, I expect that by the time charging-infra is warping up, Ather launch a product which complements the 450X. 
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@Tarun Maybe there is some upgrade planned for the following.
- Increase in RAM to have better MAPs which will come handy once Ather Grid 2.0 is installed across the cities where Ather owners frequent.
- Increase in range will help Ather remain more competitive.
- If Spares supply and service keeps existing owners happy, one will tell 10 …
- Referral if restored can create a brand following which can be compensated with merchandise or swapped with labour cost at time of service.
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I think its an initial phase of owning an EV & also based on ride patterns, at first I too was very apprehensive of range because sometimes plans change and what not but after a few months ‘most’ people realise that they can actually do a whole day’s worth of travel on a single charge even in a big city like Bangalore. Unless you go from edge to edge there’s really no need of top up in between but it’s still the 2nd question everyone asks about an EV. So even if it isn’t a blocker to seasoned EV riders, it still helps marketing and roping in new customers. (and extra chargers never hurt anyone)
Actually, this could work both ways. Unfortunately, there are too many people taking offence on behalf of others these days XD. (oh! How can Ather classify people like that and cities like that, etc etc.) It would be nice if Ather follows the same pattern of ECs everywhere no matter how fancy to that city. It’ll atleast become an attraction and help them feel just as important as everyone else.
The downside is if it’s too fancy, people might be too intimidated to even walk in. So maybe they can create a new model for small cities specifically and follow it all throughout the country.
I honestly think the valuation is majorly based on just the name ‘ola’ and not what they have done or even their projections. Once their vehicles hit the road and the problems start pouring in (hopefully they don’t) we’ll see how well they keep up. I completely agree with @arvind_nair, bloated valuation
After seeing the trouble Ather has had explaining invoices to owners, I’m more eager to see how Ola explains the invoice to their customers 
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Here are some insightful reads and listens (i have personally read/listened and liked, that’s why sharing}:
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This is why I am a bit surprised when a lot of people ask for 250-300km range EV 2w. Where exactly are they travelling daily that they need such a range in a single charge?
Reminded me of this recent incident.
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This is too rude and unacceptable. It is still an individual’s choice regarding the appearance and how the dressing of that individual is not supposed to be judged by anyone, let alone making a classist remark out of it. I hope that the salesperson had learnt a lesson there…
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The only point would be to go intercity and stay overnight midway, without having to worry about where to find a power plug.
But that is not a daily case for most.
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I was thinking about the same when writing!
You’ll be surprised at how you’ll be treated in RTO in Bangalore if you turn up in shorts or talk to the ‘babus’ there wearing sunglassess 
People need to take a chill pill sometimes. Covid’s got us in our pajamas for months on end, wearing anything else seems so uncomfortable now
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Spotted their Hyper charger on NH near Krishnagiri today. Great spot cause the complex also has the famous Murugan Idli Shop outlet!
PS: Notice the Genset behind the charger?. Wonder if it’s for the whole complex or just Ola charger.
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Nice find. Probably the first one outside cities. It’s about 80 km from the Ola campus in Bangalore and 45 km from the Ola factory. The good thing is they started setting up outside cities but the bad thing is probably just to enable Ola employees to travel from Bangalore to the factory.
That generator is definitely for the whole campus. Ola does not need such a big generator.
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I suspect the same thing. What would have really helped is if Ola starts putting 3pin sockets too at their hypercharger locations on the highway.
This location does not have any petrol bunk. It’s only the restaurant.
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Yeah, sorry. Till now all their chargers were seen only at BPCL bunks. Only exception was Ola campus Bangalore and now this.
Yes, 3 pin sockets would help many users that are from other brands. With more sales, we will definitely see businesses like Murugun themselves setting up sockets in the next 1-2 years.
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