CHENNAI: E-scooter start-up Ather Energy, which was incubated in IIT-Madras, will set up a new manufacturing unit sprawling over 4,00,000 square feet at Hosur in Tamil Nadu.The company recently signed a memorandum of understanding in this regard with the Tamil Nadu government. The new unit will see an investment of `635 crore and will help the company scale up its production.
Along with electric vehicle production, the upcoming unit will also cater to the company’s lithium-ion battery manufacturing. The new plant will create a number of job opportunities in the region. The company said that over 4,000 employees will be trained in requisite skills in the electric vehicle sector in the next five years.
Tamil Nadu recently launched its Electric Vehicle Policy, and the upcoming project is supported under the policy. According to the state industry department officials, the project will help in attracting more EV companies to the state.
Tarun Mehta, chief executive officer, Ather Energy, said, “Ather is rapidly scaling up and we need to expand our production capacity to meet growing demand. Tamil Nadu has been a hub for automobile manufacturing, and they have been working closely with us in their effort to build an EV ecosystem. A manufacturing facility at Hosur was an ideal choice considering that it is close to our R&D facilities in Bengaluru and most of the existing and potential future supply base is operating in the region. The availability of a built-up option of our desired scale and proximity helped in the decision-making”.
A senior official from the state said that a dedicated strategy to address the price of EVs, public charging infrastructure and investment in EV manufacturing and charging infrastructure was required to promote adoption of EVs in the state and these issues had been properly taken care of in the EV Policy.
Tamil Nadu’s EV policy includes 100 per cent road tax exemption for all types of EVs, capital subsidies, reimbursement of State GST, subsidy on land cost and special incentives for job-creating EV projects.