Ather Energy, India’s first smart electric scooter manufacturer, announced its partnership with IDFC bank to offer a first-in-the-industry two-wheeler EV financing option to its customers. The company’s customers will now have an easy option to upgrade and own a much smarter and faster Ather 450X scooter by incurring the same monthly expense as that of a conventional petrol scooter.
This scheme is expected to make Ather scooters more accessible to customers by offering a lucrative financing option to customers and drive faster adoption of electric vehicles. The scheme also provides the flexibility to customers to purchase a 450X or a 450 Plus with a down payment as low as 5 pc of the on-road price applicable in the respective city.
However, for the first time in the electric two-wheeler space, IDFC Bank is offering all this at a 48 month loan tenure, making the EMIs extremely easy to afford. To add to this, customers will be able to get an approval in 45 minutes and there is zero processing fee. Customers can exchange their old scooters or motorcycles at zero down payment. Practically, at a lower cost, customers can bring home a modern, performance-oriented scooter that is equipped with smart features like touchscreen dashboard, on-board navigation, reverse assist, document storage, and theft and tow notifications.
Mr Ravneet S. Phokela, Chief Business Officer, Ather Energy, said, “We believe that attractive financing plans and new financial models around EV adoption will play a crucial role in bringing in the next phase of growth for the industry. The EV financing scheme introduced in partnership with IDFC Bank is a significant step in many ways towards driving faster adoption of electric two-wheelers in the country. Now a customer buying a much superior Ather 450X with this scheme would have the same monthly expense as that of owning a 125cc scooter, making our scooters more accessible for a wider customer base across the country. This will enable us to further accelerate the strong demand we are witnessing, as we expand our retail footprint across the country.”
Mr. Rishi Kant Mishra, Business Head, Vehicle Loans, IDFC, said, “IDFC First Bank has been amongst the front runners in electric two-wheeler financing. Our evolving offerings to match diverse customer segments and our end-to-end digitized customer journey will add tremendous value to Ather Energy’s customer financing experience.”
