Jul 21, 2023 · 1h 1m · neon-show
ATHER FOUNDER: "Selling Over 11,000 Scooters Per Month & Creating India's Best EV Brand" | Tarun M
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this in-depth interview on The Neon Show, Ather Energy co-founder and CEO Tarun Mehta details the technical, operational, and strategic journey of building India's premier full-stack electric vehicle company from an IIT Madras garage into an ₹1,800-crore manufacturing powerhouse.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. How this is scored →
Siddhartha as informed peer 4.2 Guest teaching 5.1 Guest disagreement 2.1 Siddhartha pushing back 1.6
speaking balance: gold is Siddhartha, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 16:36 Rejecting bike performance myth
Tarun firmly pushes back on the host's assumption that Hero Splendor buyers choose bikes for performance, clarifying that 90% of the market buys purely due to initial purchase price and running cost constraints.
Hardest push from Siddhartha ▶ 17:30 Challenging road quality assumptionsThe host interrupts to challenge Tarun's claim about widespread road improvements by insisting that interior village and small-town roads remain terrible.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 21:50 India's 50% winner-take-all dynamicTarun corrects the host's volume estimate for Splendor and delivers an insightful breakdown of how Indian two-wheeler leaders consistently capture over 50% market share and 30% gross margins.
Siddhartha holds their own ▶ 57:20 Comparative market valuationsThe host demonstrates sharp financial literacy by citing the 30-40k crore revenue figures for Hero and Bajaj and correctly linking Bajaj's 4x public valuation multiple to its superior profit margins.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Siddhartha as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Siddhartha pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Episode Highlights and Core Philosophy | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | The host opens with an overview of Ather's scale, likening them to Apple in India. Tarun gently clarifies the timeline between their lab origins and the commercial product launch in 2018. | |
| Pivoting from Battery Packs to Full-Stack Electric Vehicles | 3 | 5 | 2 | 1 | Tarun recounts how Ather pivoted from being an energy and battery pack refurbisher to a full-stack EV OEM. He explains why B2B battery replacement was doomed when consumers despised their underlying Chinese-imported vehicles. | |
| Reinventing the Indian EV Landscape with High-Performance Scooters | 3 | 6 | 2 | 1 | Tarun breaks down the three waves of Indian EV adoption and explains how Ather created the high-performance benchmark that redefined mainstream market standards. He also details the severe negative unit economics of early prototypes. | |
| Analyzing the Two-Wheeler Market: Scooters vs. Motorcycles | 5 | 7 | 4 | 3 | When the host suggests motorcycles sell for ruggedness and performance, Tarun forcefully counters that Hero Splendor dominance is purely driven by initial affordability and fuel economy. He lays out his thesis on why electric scooters will decimate commuter bikes. | |
| Market Share Dynamics, Profit Margins, and EV Service Economics | 5 | 7 | 3 | 2 | Tarun corrects the host's estimate of Splendor volumes and provides an in-depth lesson on India's winner-take-all 50% market share dynamic. He explains how this creates world-leading automotive gross margins and contrasts EV servicing economics with ICE vehicles. | |
| Software Monetization, Pricing, and Tesla's Engineering Legacy | 4 | 6 | 3 | 2 | Tarun details software feature monetization and breaks down the statistical engineering breakthrough Tesla achieved with cell welds. He dismisses Tesla's open-source patent pledge as primarily a PR move. | |
| Rapid Revenue Scaling and the Moats of Hardware Startups | 4 | 5 | 1 | 1 | Tarun traces Ather's exponential revenue growth from 30 crores to 1800 crores. He contrasts hardware startup moats with internet companies, emphasizing how hard-earned manufacturing stabilization prevents quick copycats. | |
| The Rise of Indian Hardware Startups and Ather Alumni | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | The conversation covers emerging Indian hardware startups and spin-offs founded by Ather alumni. The host differentiates between enterprise B2B hardware and consumer-facing hardware brands. | |
| Addressing Hardware Challenges: Capital, Talent, and Engineering Pay | 5 | 5 | 2 | 2 | Tarun identifies the two missing pillars for Indian hardware: risk capital from domestic VCs and core product development engineering talent. The host presses on whether manufacturing engineers get compensated competitively compared to software roles. | |
| Building Distribution, Customer Trust, and Mainstream Mass Marketing | 4 | 5 | 3 | 2 | Tarun shares how presenting the raw P&L directly to early customers built deep community loyalty after a price hike. He strongly argues that Indian startups cannot scale automotive products on Twitter alone and must embrace mass media like TV and newspapers. | |
| Strategic Market Vision, Retail Success, and the Future of Electrification | 5 | 4 | 1 | 1 | The host and guest discuss market multiples between Bajaj and Hero, Ola's potential IPO, and Ather's premium experience strategy. Tarun points out that their Indiranagar showroom beats global Apple retail sales per square foot. |
Statements from this episode (28)
Tarun Mehta: Early Indian EV buyers loved the concept but hated their vehicles
“Every customer that we used to meet would love electric. They believed this was the future. They were big supporters, believers, everything. Every single one of them hated the EV that they bought.”
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: Ather 450 was India's fastest accelerating scooter at launch
“When we launched in 2018, Ather four 50 was the fastest accelerating scooter ever produced in the country. I mean, all scooters, all petrol scooters included.”
Tarun Mehta: Ather 450 was world's first scooter with touchscreen and Google Maps
“This was the world's first aluminum frame, bolted aluminum frame on a scooter in production. This was the first scooter anywhere in the world to deploy a touchscreen dashboard, and the first one to have Google Maps.”
Mehta: Ather's first scooter had negative 300% gross margins
“It was minus -300% negative gross margin. Yeah, -300% gross margin. That was the cost.”
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: Commuter bikes like Hero Splendor make up 90% of India's market
“The market of one 80 cc bikes and beyond in India is I think about six percent of the Indian doula market and about 10% of the bike market.
90% of the bike market in India is basically splendor.
9080, 90%.”
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: Ather, Ola, and TVS captured 50% of EV sales in FY23
“So, last year, I think about six, seven lakh vehicles were sold, ah, electric.
us, Ola, TVS were about, I think, 50% of it.
I think we did one lakh, I think Ola did 1.5 lakhs, and TVS did, again, just under a lakh.
So about three, three and a half lakh betwee…”
Mehta: India's two-wheeler category leaders routinely capture over 50% market share
“In India, the market leader, In two wheelers. Always gets to 50% plus market share. Splendor. Dominating market share. More than 50%. Activa. Winner. 55% market share. Pulsar. Winner. In the commuter sports category. I think more than 50% market share. Royal E…”
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…”
Mehta: Software upgrades account for 15% of Ather's vehicle revenue
“So in a sense, our revenue is, I would say about 85% is hardware. 15% is already software.”
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: 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.”
Mehta: Ather's revenue grew from ₹75Cr in FY21 to ₹1,800Cr in FY23
“FI. 20, 21 was 75 crores. FI. 21, 22 was 410 crores. And 20 to 23 was 1800.”
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.”
Mehta: Building hardware in India is no longer an art
“There, I think is a pretty fast expanding hardware ecosystem in the country, and it's no longer an art to do hardware. I think there's an ecosystem of engineering talent coming out now that's kind of seen these systems built out.”
Mehta: Ather alumni have founded at least seven hardware startups
“There have been so many hardware startups that have come out of Aether. There's appliance in, in cooking. There is Exponent Energy. There is another one in the battery side. I'm blanking on the name right now. There are at least like seven, eight startups that…”
Mehta: India is a supply-constrained hardware market, not demand-constrained
“India has never been historically, actually, really, if you think about it, it's not really been a demand-constrained market. We've been a sub, genuinely, we've been a supply-constrained market. We don't get the good stuff. We get the good stuff at a ridiculou…”
Mehta: EV Sector Will Build India's First Real Hardware Platform Talent
“In fact, I think electrification, electric vehicles, because of the amount of lead India has, Is going to create one of the first waves of genuine platform builders on hardware in India after a very long time.”
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…”
Mehta: Ather's 14,000 monthly sales matches the Royal Enfield Bullet
“Bullet. It's a famous product. Yeah, we all know about it. It does, I think, 14,000 units a month. Pan India. Wow. We do 14,000 today.”
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.”
Tarun Mehta: Mass TV ads provide customer social air cover, not footfall
“TV, I don't think TV drives immediate footfalls. I think TV is more salient, more long-term salience. You kind of want to be that brand that, yes, I've seen TV on the TV. I mean, we'll have money. We'll have something to think about. Basically, setting up an e…”
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.”