Ather Energy, the electric two-wheeler start-up backed by Sachin Bansal, sold 59,123 units in 2022, posting an over 200 per cent growth over last year’s low base when it sold 17,272 units.

The company said it will reach capacity of 4.5 lakh units at its two Hosur plants in Karnataka by the end of this year and is looking for a site to set up its third plant.

“We have not finalised the location of the third plant yet. We are still in talks with state governments,” said Tarun Mehta, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Ather Energy, at a community event for its customers last week.

The third plant when commissioned will take annual capacity to 15 lakh units.

When asked about future product plans, Mehta said: “We plan to stick to 450X and have facelifts and add more features to it. For the medium-term, maybe we can have a two-wheeler for family and comfortable leisure travel.”

Ather ushered in the new year with a community event on Saturday where it rolled out software upgrades, introduced services such as extended warranties and launched new colour options for its existing scooter offering, the Ather 450X.

The software upgrade — AtherStack 5.0 — will have a new interface for the dahsboard on the scooter, in addition to launching vector maps powered by Google.

The company also expanded its options to its customers by introducing four new colours, a new comfortable seat, AutoHoldTM to help ride on inclines, a five-year extended battery warranty program and the unveiling of Ather’s scooter accessories and merchandise.

Speaking on the rollout of the AtherStack, Tarun said: “In 2018, when we launched AtherStack in Ather 450, it was the first ever software engine on any two-wheeler in India, probably even globally. It powered first-to-market experiences such as the touchscreen dashboard, onboard navigation, and remote diagnostics, which barely existed even in luxury cars at that time.”

“With a fluid new UI (user interface) and Google VectorMaps, AtherStack 5.0 takes the touchscreen and maps experience to a new level. It also enables us to leverage our hardware to unlock new experiences such as AutoHoldTM.”

Ather Energy has 850+ fast chargers. It announced its new initiative - Ather Neighborhood Charging — which provides access to charging points in shared private spaces such as apartment complexes, office buildings, and tech parks.

The company has plans for more than 2500 fast charging grids this year.