Ather Energy Signs Skilling Pacts With Four Institutes Near Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar EV Plant

Ather Energy has signed memoranda of understanding with four educational and skill-development institutions in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, the company said, as it prepares a local workforce for its third manufacturing facility coming up nearby at the Aurangabad Industrial City (AURIC).

The partners are the International Centre of Excellence in Engineering and Management (ICEEM), ISIEINDIA, Yashodeep Knowledge Hub, and Jijamata Industrial Training Institute in Shevgaon. According to Ather, the tie-ups will cover EV-focused curriculum design, faculty training, and hands-on exposure for students to the company's manufacturing and technical practices.

The move follows Ather's 2024 announcement of a plant at AURIC's Bidkin site, billed at the time by the Maharashtra government as an investment of more than ₹2,000 crore with eventual annual capacity of up to one million vehicles and battery packs, and roughly 4,000 jobs. The plant, referred to internally as Factory 3.0, is being built in phases; commercial production, initially expected around mid-2026, has since been pushed to around October, with the company citing pending environmental clearances.

The timing is not incidental. Ather's existing two facilities in Hosur, Tamil Nadu, have struggled to keep pace with demand for its scooters, particularly the mass-market Rizta, which accounted for roughly three-quarters of the company's sales volumes in the year ending March 2026. Company executives have said monthly demand has outstripped supply by a wide margin, and have flagged the possibility of accelerating the AURIC plant's second phase rather than waiting for the first to prove itself.

Sanjeev Kumar Singh, Ather's chief operating officer, said building a factory also meant building the ecosystem around it, adding that Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar's institutions gave the company a "direct channel" to understand what local talent needed. Surabhi Loshali, the company's chief human resources officer, said the partnerships would let Ather shape curricula around real industry requirements rather than train workers after the fact.

Institution representatives were equally measured. Dr C.S. Padmavat of ICEEM said the collaboration would help "connect technical education with real-world applications," while Rupali Agrawal of ISIEINDIA called industry-academia partnerships important to the EV sector's next phase of growth. Ather did not disclose financial details of the arrangements or a timeline for rolling out the training programmes.

The announcement adds to a broader push to position Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar as an electric-vehicle manufacturing hub; Toyota Kirloskar Motor has also committed a large investment to the region. For Ather, which posted a 69 per cent rise in annual sales for the year ending March 2026 alongside a narrower net loss, the skilling initiative underscores a wider industry recognition that expanding capacity counts for little without the workforce to run it.