Ather Energy, one of India's electric two-wheeler manufacturers, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Amara Raja Advanced Cell Technologies (ARACT), a wholly owned subsidiary of Amara Raja Energy & Mobility (ARE&M). As part of this agreement, Amara Raja will collaborate with Ather to develop and supply NMC (Nickel Manganese Cobalt) and LFP (Lithium Iron Phosphate) Lithium-Ion (Li-ion) and other advanced chemistry cells.
Tarun Mehta, Co-founder & CEO at Ather Energy, said, "Our focus has always been on designing and building products from scratch in India, with most of our components, aside from cells, sourced domestically. Now, we're taking a significant step forward by promoting homegrown cell technology. This will help us optimise costs and enable us to source lithium-ion cells tailored to Ather's specific requirements, further enhancing our ability to innovate and scale efficiently. Our aim is to help the domestic industry grow significantly to support India's energy demand now and in the coming future."
Vikramaditya Gourineni, Executive Director, Amara Raja Energy & Mobility Ltd said, "We immensely respect Ather's contribution to electrify mobility in India and their unique approach to overall ecosystem development for sustainable personal mobility solutions. At Amara Raja, we have significantly progressed in our efforts to building world-class facilities to manufacture cell and battery packs customised for Indian conditions. Our recent collaboration with Gotion-InoBat will accelerate our efforts towards the same. We are proud to partner with Ather and together we will focus on building market relevant solutions in India's journey towards indigenisation of Electric Vehicle technologies."
Ather Energy has designed and built its battery packs in-house. Currently, it has two manufacturing facilities in Hosur, Tamil Nadu, one dedicated to battery production and the other for vehicle assembly. Ather has recently announced its plans to open a third facility in Maharashtra which will allow Ather to get closer to more markets in the country.
Amara Raja is committed to providing products and solutions for e-mobility and energy storage markets and aims to be one of the largest manufacturers of Li-ion and other advanced chemistry cells in India. Amara Raja had announced an investment outlay of Rs 9,500 crores to establish a 16Gwh capacity gigafactory in Telangana. Additionally, the company is all set to lead India's R&D capabilities by establishing a state-of-the-art advanced research and innovation centre called ‘ePositive Energy Labs' in Hyderabad.