Ola Electric may want to get away with all ICE vehicles in India, but rival Ather is already looking outside India. Ather Energy has announced that it will start marketing its premium electric two-wheeler, the 450X, in Nepal. This will be the business's first venture overseas. Next month, Ather will inaugurate an Experience Center in Kathmandu. Ather Energy Chief Business Officer Ravneet Phokela said, "While we continue to grow domestically, we are excited about expanding our business footprint to international markets". "We have experienced incredible inbound demand from various markets, and Nepal is the first stop on our international expansion journey", he continued.

“We see Nepal’s automobile market as a microcosm of the rising global consciousness over switching to cleaner mobility choices. In line with our ecosystem approach of market creation, we will also roll out our public fast-charging infrastructure, which has proven to be a huge differentiator for us in India", he added. Ather will partner with Nepal-based Vaidya Energy for the rollout. Ather isn’t the first Indian startup to look at foreign markets in recent times a host of Indian startups have looked to expand abroad, with varying levels of success. Zomato was once present in several international markets but has since retreated from most of them. Oyo has launched in areas as diverse as China, Japan, the US, Europe, and Latin America, but not all those launches have worked out. Byju’s, meanwhile, acquired companies in the US and Europe, Redbus is present in several South Asian countries, and even Practo had once launched in Brazil.

Nepal, though, might be a challenging market for Ather to foray into. Nepal has several flat cities including Kathmandu and Pokhara where electric scooters might be helpful, but it also borders China on the east. China, of course, is the world leader in cheap electric two-wheelers and could supply its scooters to Nepal. Nepal currently has a communist government that’s ideologically close to China, and even as several China-made scooters are already available in Nepal, even more could be made available in the coming years. As such, Ather might have its path cut out in dominating the Nepalese market. But to its credit, it’s ventured into the country the same, and perhaps become the first homegrown Indian electric two-wheeler company to make its vehicles available on foreign shores.