Meet the electric automobile startup that got funded by Hero MotoCorp

The India government wishes to get as many as six million electric vehicles on the roads by 2020, with two thirds of it being either a bus or a two wheeler.

This is why when a huge conglomerate, scooter and motorcycle maker Hero MotoCorp Ltd reveals that it will invest up to Rs 205 crore for a 26-30% stake in Bengaluru-based electric vehicle start-up Ather Energy, it gets very interesting for clean-tech startups.

Backed by tiger global and Flipkart founder, Sachin Bansal, Ather revealed a model scooter Ather S340 in February this year. And we were there to see the founders extremely excited.

Tarun Mehta, co-founder and chief executive officer, Ather had mentioned that time that the scooter will go on sale early next year.

While he explained the intricacies of the electric scooter, Ather S340 looked like a sleek scooty except much sturdier.

It has a tablet-based console integrated with multiple apps such as Google Maps. The scooter is capable of alerting users to problems and make driving much smoother.

Mehta had claimed that the scooter can run till 100km on a full charge and is charged up to 70-80% in an hour.

Ather has purchased a facility in white field to start production for the same and also develop an R&D centre.

To develop a system that makes electric scooters more adoptable, it is important to use the funds towards building a network of charging stations all over the country and expanding the product offerings much like Tesla had done with its sleek cars.

The future could look much cleaner and electrifying if interest in e-vehicles is more charged up.