His professional experience includes internships at Mercedes-Benz Research and Development and Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL). Read here to find more about him.
A prominent Indian electric vehicle manufacturer, founded in 2013, is revolutionizing the EV industry with its focus on high-performance, smart electric scooters. Despite being rejected by 80 investors, the company has grown into a Rs 26,000 crore behemoth, with its CEO playing a pivotal role in driving India’s EV revolution. Today, in this article, we tell you one such inspiring story about Co-founder and CEO of Ather Energy Tarun Mehta.
Who is Tarun Mehta?
Tarun Mehta is the Co-founder and CEO of Ather Energy, a key figure in driving India’s EV revolution. He co-founded the company with his batchmate Swapnil Jain to build high-performance, smart electric scooters.
Tarun Mehta’s educational qualification and early Life
Mehta earned a dual degree in Engineering Design from IIT Madras in 2012, where he was involved in product development and entrepreneurship. His professional experience includes internships at Mercedes-Benz Research and Development and Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL). After graduating, he worked briefly as a Deputy Manager at Ashok Leyland before leaving in 2012 to pursue his entrepreneurial vision in the electric mobility sector.
Focus on engineering and design
The company’s belief is that selling more vehicles will not give any electric two-wheeler maker an edge in terms of better profit margins, as all companies have similar cost structures due to access to the same supply chain. Instead, investments in technology with a focus on improving processes could help two-wheeler EV makers achieve better margins, according to Mehta. “There’s an incorrect assessment of the automotive industry that whoever produces more will have a better margin,” Mehta said. “Volume has played a minimal role in unit economics over the years. There’s a ton of value engineering. There’s a lot of process optimisation, and then there’s a lot of technology improvement to bring in, which improves cost structures. Engineering is the superpower.”
Break-even still eludes
The comments from Ather Energy’s co-founder come at a time when legacy and new-age rivals are looking to scale up their overall sales in the segment. Currently, no electric two-wheeler company has achieved a break-even point for its EV business. However, Ola Electric, Bajaj Auto, and Hero have charted a path to profitability.
Mehta is not concerned about the sales gap with legacy players. “Everybody’s betting on growth. Cost structures are similar at the buy level. So the difference between us and competitors is not an earth-shattering number,” Mehta opined. “Your cost differences don’t come about as much from scale. Scale has an impact, but a much larger impact is in engineering and design, which is why we are choosing to focus so heavily on these areas. The real race is between whether the competition can catch up on tech first or whether we can catch up on distribution first,” Mehta said.
Expanding distribution network
With a focus on technology, Ather is also planning to double its distribution network from 351 stores in FY25 to 700 by the end of the current financial year
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