Tarun Mehta, Co-Founder & CEO, Ather Energy.
“The introduction of several progressive policies and incentives by the Government like the FAME 2 subsidy and offering income tax rebates on the purchase has led to an increase in consumer demand for electric vehicles in India. We are also witnessing the growth of the EV Industry in terms of companies launching high-quality and well performing new products in the market.
For manufacturers, one of the key challenges on investments in the sector is the concerns regarding GST inverted duty structure. In order to minimise working capital blockage, the Government should look at extending end use based benefits to the EV industry like lowering GST rates on raw materials, allowing inverted duty refunds for research and development and capital expenditure. Especially for startup’s like ours in their growth phase, offsetting inputs on such major expenses without being GST profitable is a big challenge.
We also see a need for banking institutions to come up with innovative financial products for EV purchases. Further startup’s in their growth phase suffer from lack of options on debt financing thereby increasing finance cost burden.
From an operational perspective, we are closely following the Production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme and we look forward to more progressive schemes designed for OEMs”
About Ather Energy:
Ather Energy, one of India’s first intelligent electric vehicle manufacturers was founded in 2013 by IIT Madras alumni, Tarun Mehta, and Swapnil Jain. It is backed by the founders of Flipkart -Sachin Bansal & Binny Bansal- Hero Motocorp and Tiger Global. Ather Energy launched India’s first truly intelligent, electric scooter – Ather 450 in 2018, followed by their new flagship offering Ather 450X in 2020. Ather has also installed a comprehensive public charging network, Ather Grid, designed and built in India. With 38 charging points in Bengaluru and 14 charging points in Chennai, Ather Grid is one of the largest fast-charging networks for electric vehicles in the country. The company’s product line has won 30 awards in design, automotive and technology categories. With over 51 patent applications, 113 trademarks and 123 design registrations to its name, Ather Energy aims to provide consumers with the best possible ownership experience. Ather Energy currently operates in Bengaluru and Chennai and in 2020 will expand to 8 more cities including Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Pune & Hyderabad
