Tarun Mehta
Co-founder & CEO, Ather Energy. On 2 shows, 2 appearances, plus 1 compilation re-air not counted. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderexecutiveengineerinvestor@tarunsmehta ↗LinkedIn ↗atherenergy.com ↗
Tarun Mehta co-founded Ather Energy in 2013 with IIT Madras classmate Swapnil Jain to design and manufacture intelligent electric scooters, notably the Ather 450 series and Ather Rizta. As CEO, he leads Ather's technology, product strategy, and the rollout of its public fast-charging network, the Ather Grid.
2shows
2appearances
55statements
20resolved
12supported
4contradicted
60%fully supported
1said about them ↓ Everything Tarun Mehta said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
EVs reduce emissions even on a 100% coal-based electricity grid
“Even if it was a hundred percent coal based, it will still make sense.”
Tarun Mehta: Dealership distribution is no longer a moat in India
“Long term distribution is not really a moat in India.”
Ather's auto hill-hold feature lasts 10 minutes while Ola's lasts one
“The way we implemented and the way Ola implemented I think Ola's same capability would last a much shorter time. So if you engage this hill hole feature on a steep slope after a minute or so, the motor would be like, okay, now I can't support this. It'll start…”
Mehta: No global two-wheeler market matches India's EV tech standards
“Not a single country, not a single two-wheeler market competes with the technology standards of India today.”
Mehta: India's electric scooter volumes will catch up to China by 2027
“Volumes, they are ahead, but volumes will catch up in the next three, four years. But in terms of just sheer technology, and product quality, and product the feature list. No, I'm not just speaking for Aether. I'm just, I'm speaking actually about the entire e…”
Mehta: Electric scooters will decimate India's commuter motorcycle market within 10 years
“So my belief for the last several years has been electric scooters will decimate the
Commuter entry motorcycle market in India over the next 10 years.
What will be left as motorcycles is the premium and the high performance category, one 8200 cc and beyond, wh…”
Mehta: Tesla open-sourcing its patents was mostly a PR stunt
“So I think, ah, open sourcing the patents was more, ultimately served more PR purpose than genuine accelerate the industry purpose.”
EV usage and buying patterns are identical across Indian city tiers
“I think tier one daily usage is 31 kilometers, tier two is like, 32, tier three is like, 29. There is no meaningful difference of usage, daily usage. There is no meaningful difference of buying patterns. Tier one, tier two, tier three.”
Tarun Mehta: Ather's charging connector is India's national standard
“Charging standard has become the national standard.”
Mehta: Viable cell manufacturing in India requires at least 4,000-5,000 crore investment
“The challenge of setting up cell manufacturing in India for a while now has been demanding. And the minimum investment required is pretty high. Like if you're not putting, if you're not bringing four, 5000 crores to the table, practically, it'll be very diffic…”
Cell manufacturing combines high technical complexity with poor commodity margins
“So I've really considered cell manufacturing is this really complexly bad combo. Very high tech with commodity margins. So it only makes strategic sense. It generally doesn't make cost sense.”
Mehta: Ather projects 8-10 year battery pack life, rivals will struggle past 5
“So for example, our oldest battery packs are now five years in the field. And we have, they are still at 90% plus health, which means we are now internally starting to project eight to 10 year battery life. We know in the industry that I think most of our comp…”
Mehta: EV range is a cost and spec decision, not breakthrough technology
“Range is a cost. Range is a product spec decision. How much range is? Obviously, it gets missold as like, you know, somebody's cracked this amazing battery that'll do thousand kilometers in a car. It's only two batteries. It doesn't crack any amazing technolog…”
Entering the electric two-wheeler market requires at least $100 million
“So your entry, entry point to building an e-to-wheeler in the market today, your table stakes of just entering this business, in my opinion, is about a hundred million. If you're bringing a hundred million, you can enter the game, and then you'll have to raise…”
Mehta: Ather has the world's largest electric two-wheeler R&D team
“Yes, that's why I said it's the world's largest R&D for two wheelers, electric two wheelers.”
Every EV subscription startup quietly pivoted into an auto-financing company
“Every company who's talked about cracking subscription, quickly, quietly became a financing company. Everybody.”
Mehta: In 2013, auto OEMs dismissed EVs or imported from China
“We realized OEM signed two camps, Either they're very smart, and they know that we won't have EV. Ok. EV is still like a 10 year old story, later story. Or they're idiots, and they think importing from China is a brilliant strategy.”
Mehta: EVs cannot profit on servicing and must monetize software upgrades
“Long term, I do think that electric vehicles are not going to make money on servicing. They just can't. And as quality improves for each of, each one of us, their number will drop even further. I think long-term electric vehicles will have to make money on som…”
Tarun Mehta: Lithium-ion would not be affordable without Tesla's cell packaging
“In the absence of it, there's no way lithium-ion prices would have become affordable because it changed the underlying economics of the industry radically. The small form factor sales were very affordable, but the small form factor sales would have never, neve…”
Mehta: Stabilized hardware platforms create moats internet businesses cannot match
“Once you build hardware, once you've stabilized your platform, you've got a really powerful lead. You've got a really powerful moat that internet businesses can never deliver on. Almost never. SaaS maybe. Internet powered businesses, almost never.”
Tarun Mehta: Founders must build operational muscle before hiring senior leaders
“It's best to build a muscle in the company yourselves first and fail a little bit at it before you bring in the real leadership and before you bring in the big guns. Every time we've attempted something as a lazy approach, let's just hire a solid VP for this a…”
Mehta: Auto brands in India need mass marketing, not just Twitter
“We are not a country where you can sell stuff on Twitter to a meaningful audience. You can sell stuff to Twitter for like five crore people, but tool is about by like 30 crore people. So you have to, you should almost consider, which actually we've not been su…”
Tarun Mehta: Front-page newspaper ads deliver the best retail ROI
“I love newspapers. Front page ads. Nothing works better. Like the amount of football they bring in, I kid you not. They pay themselves back over a weekend. Like the best ROI.”
Mehta: Ather's Bangalore store beats Apple's global revenue per square foot
“Indranagar on many months beats Apple global averages quite, quite comfortably. I think on a regular month, I think it also beats, but on a good month, festive months, I think it's like double that of Apple global average.”
The other half of the tape: Tarun Mehta's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 1 time in 1 episode across the shows. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Sharad Sharma 1
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
the Neon Show 1
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Tarun's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NEON SHOWLEDGER | Co-founder & CEO, Ather Energy | 1 | 28 | 50% 4/8 | full record on the Neon Show → |
 WTFLEDGER | Co-founder & CEO, Ather Energy | 1 +1 | 27 | 67% 8/12 | full record on WTF is with Nikhil Kamath → |