DOING IT THEIR WAY

ELECTRIC TWO-WHEELER MAKER ATHER ENERGY, WHILE BEING ONE OF THE FIRST ONES OFF THE BLOCK, HAS CHARTED ITS OWN GROWTH STORY, CHALLENGING MARKET NORMS AND TRENDS. WILL ITS GAMBLE PAY OFF IN THE LONG RUN?

- BY KARAN DHAR

A DECADE AGO, when India's electric two-wheeler market was flooded with cheap Chinese imports and no legacy auto manufacturer was ready to take the EV plunge, Tarun Meha saw an opportunity to make electric scooters from the ground up. Mehta, the cofounder and CEO of Ather Energywho, along with fellow co-founder Swapnil Jain was already working on a mock vehicle at the incubation centre of IIT Madras, their alma mater, to test out battery packs they were hoping to sell to automakers. But they soon realised that it would be easier to sell EVs to customers than batteries to OEMs. The transition to EVs had opened up a level-playing field for India's new-age startups as legacy auto players were not keen on investing in a new technology then.

While Ather was the first Indian startup to get an electric scooter off the ground (in 2018), in terms of sales numbers it has fallen behind rivals who entered the space later. In 2024, Ather sold 126,000 electric scooters, coming in after Ola Electric, TVS Motor Company, and Bajaj Auto.

“Competition in the electric two-wheeler segment remains high despite the fact that many fringe players are out of the market,” says Shamsher Dewan, Senior Vice President and Group Head-Corporate Ratings, at ICRA, “Now the competition is among the Top 5 players and at the same time you don't have the volumes where you will have the operating leverage benefits,” he says.

Despite the difficulties, Ather has never followed the conventional playbook. Until April 2024, it focussed only on performance scooters (the 450 series), limiting any scope of dealership expansion in the hinterland. Subsequently, its distribution network of 208 touch points pales in comparison to the thousands its peers have. But Mehta is upbeat. “Legacy competitors play on their strength of an existing network. We will play on the product… With an expanding portfolio, we will keep going deeper with our network,” he says.