IPO-ready electric two-wheeler manufacturer Ather Energy, which recently expanded its R&D and testing capabilities in Bengaluru, has found success in the northern market with its newly launched e-scooter Rizta.
Swapnil Jain, Co-founder & CTO, Ather Energy in an interaction with TNIE’s Uma Kannan, says the company was focusing on the Southern market for a long time and now with the right product they are expanding into other places, especially the North. The Hero MotoCorp-backed company has two manufacturing plants in Tamil Nadu and another one is coming up in Maharashtra. Jain also spoke about why the growing competition is good for them, its market share and R&D capabilities. Edited excerpts:
In CY2024, the overall EV two-wheeler sales grew by 33%, but Ather’s sales grew only 20% y-o-y and your market share was 11%. But in January 2025, sales improved and you sold 13,040 units. What kind of growth are you expecting going forward?
There have been multiple factors to it. If you again look at the market share data for this month (February), you will be convinced that we are not growing slower. In between, we had a slowdown and that was because of a transition. People were anticipating a new product and we introduced the Rizta. Following the new launch, we came back on track and have been doing good. It’s a journey for us. We have been focusing on the South for a long time, and now we are expanding into other places because we now have the right product for the North.
What difference are you seeing between the South and the North markets?
The customer preference in the South is very different compared to the North. Ather 450 is something that works really well in the South, but doesn’t work well for North India, as people there prefer a bulkier product. With respect to serving, the North customer is very different from serving a South customer. The Rizta has received a very good response there. We have grown significantly, especially in Gujarat because the State loved us as a brand but we didn’t have the right product. As soon as we launched the new product, our market share there went up from 5% to almost 22-23%.
Can we expect a new product from you in the near future? Also, any plans to launch a motorcycle?
A lot of work is going on at Ather. Our focus is to first build the platform. It took us five years to build the 450 platform and then we built many products on it. So, we are in a similar stage in terms of motorcycle and new products. We are working on two new platforms. When will they be converted into a product? I think I might not be able to answer that, but there is a lot of work happening to make a robust platform that can quickly turn out products.
How are you looking at the growing competition in the EV market?
I feel competition is good, especially when it comes to new technologies. For example, let’s say if you had only ChatGPT, you may not be comfortable. Now you see Google is also offering a chatbot. When you see many people offering it, you become comfortable. And the same thing happens in the EV industry. With more OEMs, you get comfortable as a user and you start using technology. Competition is very helpful.
With the expansion of the R & D facility, what exactly are you looking at?
It is not good enough to build quality products alone, you have to build them faster. You have to disrupt yourself every 6 months. Personally, I have a vision for the entire R&D team that they don’t settle, but keep disrupting every 6 months.