Tarun Mehta and Ather Energy: How an IIT student’s serendipitous idea changed India’s EV ecosystem

Tarun Mehta was making battery packs at the Incubation Cell of IIT Madras when he chanced upon the idea of an electric vehicle company. “To test our battery pack, we were building a mock vehicle, and realised it is a lot of fun building the vehicle,” he says. In 2018, Ather Energy was one of the first companies to launch an electric scooter in India. Today, it is in the company of legacy players and is India’s fourth-largest electric two-wheeler maker. Mehta believes his company will catch up with legacy players “in a couple of years”. “With 266 stores, we are playing with companies that have 750–1,000 stores,” he says. “With a wider portfolio, you have more viable distribution.” Yet, Ather’s business synergy with Hero MotoCorp, its largest shareholder, is limited to the charging infrastructure, and not leveraging the distribution network. With Mehta and co-founder Swapnil Jain’s engineering background, Ather is heavily invested in R&D. The company, which has a leased facility in Tamil Nadu, is building another one with a million-unit capacity in Maharashtra. Ather’s focus on setting up EV charging infrastructure differentiates it from legacy brands. It has set up India’s largest fast-charging network for electric two-wheelers. It also open-sourced its charging port. Fortune India is now on WhatsApp! Get the latest updates from the world of business and economy delivered straight to your phone. Subscribe now.

Tarun Mehta and Ather Energy: How an IIT student’s serendipitous idea changed India’s EV ecosystem

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