The Tesla Of Scooters To Be Launched On 5 June

After delaying it for almost a year, Ather Energy has finally announced that its futuristic electric scooter will be launched on 5 June in Bengaluru. The company has also renamed the smart scooter from 'S340' to just '340' and is expected to price it around Rs 1 lakh (ex-showroom).

The scooter sales, for now, will only be limited to Bengaluru due to the company's approach of installing the charging infrastructure (Ather Grid) first, before retailing the scooter. As it already has established 30 charging stations this month in Bengaluru and plans on doubling the number by the end of the year, it makes perfect sense for Ather to initially launch the 340 in Bengaluru only.

As far as the scooter is concerned, it seems to be taken straight out of a sci-fi movie. This is mainly due to the host of futuristic functions it offers. These include touchscreen instrument cluster with smartphone connectivity, parking assist, navigation assist, vehicle charging point tracker, push navigation and more. In addition to this, it also gets CBS, LED lighting and an underseat storage light.

The scooter has been built with lightweight materials and will be powered by a 2.2kWh lithium ion battery which has a life cycle of 50,000km. According to the company, this scooter is capable of achieving a top speed of 72kmph, with a range of 60km on a single charge. The battery can be charged up to 80 per cent in just 50 minutes with fast charging!

While the Ather scooter seems extremely promising, it has a big challenge ahead of itself if it wants to compete against conventional scooters like the Honda Activa and the TVS Jupiter. It remains to be seen how the Indian or at least Bengaluru-based customers will receive it. We have taken the Ather for a spin already, stay tuned for our impressions!