BLive, Ather Energy partner to drive EV adoption at tourist places

Multi EV retail platform BLive and Bengaluru-based Ather Energy on Tuesday announced a strategic partnership to drive adoption of electric vehicles at tourist destinations in the country.

The partnership will cover areas like setting up charging infrastructure and pre-bookings of EVs, among others, starting with Goa, a release said.

Ather Energy and BLive aim to build an ecosystem that provides easily accessible EV experience and charging infrastructure across the country, leveraging the latter's pan-India presence at the country's top tourist destinations, it said.

BLive will set up 15 charging stations 'BLiive EV Zones' for Ather Energy at prominent locations across Goa by the end of this year, with five of them to come up this month, the release said, adding it will also offer a first hand Ather Energy e-scooter experience and help customers with pre-booking and booking of the same through its multi-brand online EV store.

The electric vehicle market in India is amidst massive transformation and we have seen an exponential increase in demand for our electric scooters.

"We aim to leverage BLive's strong presence in Goa and other popular tourist destinations across India, in deploying Ather Grid and bringing the Ather experience to EV enthusiasts," Ravneet S Phokela, Chief Business Officer, Ather Energy, said.

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Ather Energy hopes to work very closely with BLive's range of partners, from Goa Tourism to the hospitality industry, in boosting consumer confidence in shifting to e-vehicles, he added.

"We are happy to take another giant leap forward in driving the EV experience and adoption with Ather Energy across India, starting with Goa. Our partnership will help us offer premium hand-crafted experience on Ather's e-scooter," said Samarth Kholkar and Sandeep Mukherjee, Co-founders of BLive, said.

The company has already seen multiple pre bookings for Ather in a few days of launch. This will only go higher and so will adoption to electric mobility, BLive said.

BLive, which is the official EV Tourism partner of Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC), will also set up BLive EV Zones across the Corporation's associated hotels in the state, it stated.

GTDC Chairman Dayanand Sopte said, "We want Goa to set an example for sustainable tourism. GTDC supports all the efforts to make sustainable tourism and EV adoption in Goa. We want to create an environment where companies like Ather Energy and BLive can drive innovative change and lead us into the future".

BLive will leverage its existing partnerships with public and private players in the travel and hospitality industry to drive the Ather Grid roll-out across locations in India, the company said.

BLive is currently present in nine states across 18 locations.