By Business India Editorial

Tarun Mehta, Co-founder and CEO, Ather Energy, one of the country’s leading e-scooter makers, said that the company is planning to double its market share to 25-35 per cent by the end of the fiscal year 2024.

The Bengaluru-based Ather will be able to produce 20,000 units every month by then, said Mehta.

The company is also working on a new scooter platform, and will expand its offering to segments beyond performance scooters, into the family, convenience, and value segments, where rivals such as TVS Motor Company and Ola Electric are the leading players.

Ahead of the festive season, two-wheeler makers are gearing up to launch new low-cost models, and advancing their product launch plans in response to revised FAME-II subsidies. Ather’s new 450S, positioned to compete in the 125cc performance scooter market, is its most affordable product, priced at Rs1.29 lakh ex-showroom, including the FAME-II subsidy.

“The sports scooters market in India is over 60,000 units a month, that you can segment into 150cc and 125cc. There is really no 110CC sports scooter. The 150cc scooter segment is 8,000-9,000 units per month and the rest (50,000-55,000 units) is 125cc. In the 150cc segment, Ather 450X is pretty much the leader, with 70-80 per cent share.

The 125cc segment is obviously the next big segment with five times larger volumes at 55,000 units. The 450S will take competition to that space. It will take 20-25 per cent market share in the short term, then take on segment leaders TVS NTorq and over the long term take a meaningful share of the segment,” said Mehta.

“The market is maturing super-fast. Increasingly it is becoming sophisticated, especially where EVs are present for a while, like in Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Pune, with customers seeing 20-30 per cent electric penetration in the scooters space. They want to buy an Ather for a performance scooter. If you want the trust of an old name, you buy TVS. This implies that a large number of buyers walking into our showrooms want performance. So, we are positioning the scooter as a performance scooter instead of a generic product. Soon, every OEM will be electric. That’s not a good way to differentiate ourselves, he said.

“However, we won’t just keep selling performance scooters. There are other segments we are eyeing. There’s a fantastic market in the family segment, in the comfort and convenience segments. And you can bet Ather is building a lot and in the coming years you will see many announcements as we enter those segments."

According to Mehta, electric two-wheelers, which grew at 30-35 per cent every quarter, but saw a volumes dip following lower subsidies in June, will recover to March-like sales within a month or two.