Bellad, who is also the deputy leader of Opposition in the Karnataka assembly, urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Industries Minister MB Patil to act swiftly, engage with Ather and persuade them to set up the plant in Karnataka.
The BJP lawmaker, in a chat with ET, said the development was disappointing because Ather was headquartered in Bengaluru, but the company was choosing neighbouring states for locating its manufacturing plants.
Hubballi-Dharwad, with existing facilities like Tata Marcopolo, could become a manufacturing cluster, Bellad said in a post on X. “Let's not miss this opportunity for job creation and economic growth in Karnataka.”
Ather, according to reports, has chosen Aurangabad to invest about INR 1000 crore on its third plant. The company operates two assembly lines at Hosur in Tamil Nadu.
Industries Minister MB Patil told ET that he was aware of the development and his department officials had been engaged with Ather.
Sources told ET that major EV manufacturers were choosing Tamil Nadu or Maharashtra in view of the ease of accessing components locally. Places around Chennai and Pune are hubs of EV components, but a similar ecosystem was missing in Karnataka.
Bellad said he had suggested to the government to overcome the handicap with a policy offering to absorb logistics costs if EV makers had to source components from outside. That was one way the state could prevent flight of capital and jobs to other states.
Bellad’s post elicited a few angry comments. One of them said EV makers would come to Bengaluru only for on-road testing during monsoon, while another said the government was busy generating funds for freebies instead of spending time on creating job opportunities.
Tamil Nadu is home to the assembly units of firms such as Ola Electric, TVS Motor (iQube), Ather Energy, and Greaves Electric (Ampere).
An auto sector veteran said most EV makers would prefer to have their corporate office in Bengaluru but assembly lines in other states, as Karnataka cannot match the incentives and concessions other governments were offering.
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