India Is #1 in EV Two Wheelers. Tarun Mehta Explains Why.
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- čas přidán 28. 05. 2024
- Listen on Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5rGPalo...
00:00 Intro
02:52 Building Ather S340 and 450
09:15 Indian EVs vs Chinese EVs
19:29 Can India become the biggest electric vehicle exporter?
28:10 Indian EV industry (wave 1)
33:30 Struggles of building an EV company
40:40 How Ather almost shut down
52:09 The hardware wave
58:10 How to take feedback
1:04:48 Asteroid mining is the future
1:09:59 The future of the energy industry
1:15:45 Outro
Ather, founded by Tarun Mehta and his co-founder Swapnil Jain, originated from their time at IIT Madras. Securing a significant boost in the form of a million-dollar investment from Sachin and Binny Bansal, they embarked on a journey to create an innovative low-speed electric scooter, the S340. However, after dedicating five years to its development, they discerned a shift in the market demand. Responding to the preferences of Indian consumers, they pivoted to introduce the more powerful Ather 450, which quickly claimed the title of the most potent scooter in India at that time.
The evolution from the S340 to the Ather 450 marked a strategic move that propelled the company's prominence in India's burgeoning electric two-wheeler industry. Currently, their flagship products, the 450X and 450S, have positioned Ather at the coveted #4 spot in the market. Notably, the company has not confined its success to the domestic market, as it has ventured into the international arena. As of the latest update, Ather has officially expanded its operations to Nepal, contributing to the global footprint of electric scooters.
Tarun Mehta's entrepreneurial journey, from the inception of Ather to its present status as a key player in the electric mobility landscape, showcases the dynamic responsiveness and adaptability required in the ever-evolving market of sustainable transportation.
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Podcast: open.spotify.com/show/5rGPalo...
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I'm an Ola S1 Pro owner, but I've got to hand it to Tarun and his team for making a wonderful scooter. Sadly, my height and usage meant that I couldn't buy it but it's a very reliable enjoyable EV. Looking forward to a bigger scooter from Ather that I can in future!
Refreshing to see someone who hasn't "chosen a side" and appreciates pros and cons of both brands 🙂 I hope they make a scooter for you too! My wife tried out the Ather 450X that they let me test ride before my podcast with Tarun and it was way too tall and heavy for her compared to our ICE scooter, so I can imagine it's a tough decision for Ather to decide on a form factor that will inevitably exclude edge cases like you and my wife. -Caleb
@@backstagewithmillionaires but they can do removable seats or hight adjustable seats like the himalayan 452
i would have asked him about what does he think about the RE going electric they introduced the Him-E in eicma
@@vedaprakash1653 yes, but that would still mean the handles would touch the knees of someone with a bit longer legs, 5'10" and above. I found the sitting position to be too cramped, especially since I have to travel with a pillion half the time and I can't just move back. That is by no means Ather's fault. Just look at the Hero Xoom 110, a kind of OCE step-brother of the 450X that's almost the same size. It's selling like hot cake, relatively speaking.
Tarun made a scoter that would fit 85% of all Indians, so people above 5'10" (like me) and below 5'3" (like his wife) will be Sadly left out.
Ola is best value for money bro
@@Live_Loud sis* and it is! Overall one of the BEST ev scooter in the entire world I'd say, right after Gogoro. Though I haven't had any issues until now, enough people have had them to call it not as reliable as Ather. Ola's got a massive boot, great high speed stability, and just enough range to go on semi-long trips.
I have Ather 450x 3rd Gen, using for 1.5 yrs. Amazing to ride. I love the Ather Story and how they have progressed. It's amazing. ❤🎉
A much better podcast, for Tarun, compared to the previous one, with a different channel, which was rife with plugged questions and marketing 'embellishments'. Thanks in big part to Caleb for bringing out a good and honest narrative from this founder and actually talking about the ev market at
large and related insights.
Thanks Mr. Mumbles, I appreciate you say this! And I'm glad to know that you enjoyed the conversation. -Caleb
Ather is the “Apple” of India EV ecosystem. Ather 450X is such a fun to ride scooter. Proud and happy Ather 450X owner ⚡️💙
Second that
If you are ok to pay a bit of premium for rock solid reliability and fine with a bit less range, than Ather is the best EV Scooter in the Market hands down.
- 450s owner
Brilliant interview. Tarun is a great guy, hope Aether aims higher and for a larger piece of the pie!
Thanks a lot Amar! I'm with you, I hope Ather can accelerate their production and come up with something new soon. They are an important fixture in this industry. -Caleb
This is what we call a podcast .
The thing which open new dimension in your mind.
15:50 the reason for this could also be aspiration. When something is cheaper people are ingrained into thinking that it will not be as good. So i think price-quality heuristic is also a reason for this.
Great insight about the value point, never noticed that.
For me Ather Scooters are aspirational, not in terms of luxury but in terms of packaging of product. The features are not out of the world but design, quality & performance of it is great. My building has 3 ather owners. Ola on other hand it is a bit hard to digest their products. As we all know we have trust issues with ola. Ather seems like a much more established product.
Yep, Ather is a product you will buy and be proud to own - they're not going for the commodity approach. Very few products in the world like that, where you know that the utmost care and attention have been given to create the product. -Caleb
Great conversation !
We need all our startups like ather, ola and others to start displaying their scooters at eicma for global exposure from next year if they really are interested in exporting like how ultraviollete , hero and RE had displayed their bikes this year
Well you can’t say ola as a true startup.
Very inspiring story !!
Please Invite all these legends too ashneer grover , Aman Gupta , Ritesh Agarwal , Ronnie Screwvala , Amit Jain , Anupam Mittal , Deepinder Goyal , Ashis Hemrajani.
yo that's this podcast give me some good info. and a new view to see India's consumer market also opening more than 500 stores in India will give you diminishing returns seems pretty interesting
Another level information man
Very very excited after very long time
Thanks for watching Sai, and really happy to know that the pod got you pumped up! -Caleb
Your conviction will keep you up.
Auto hold feature should be given without pro pack for customers who live in hilly regions. It will increase sales as well. We have huge problem of holding scooter still on inclination or declination.
Yo, I'm lovin this new format...
So glad to know this Pranjal, thanks for the feedback! -Caleb
Finally 🎉
Hope you enjoy the conversation Abhinav! -Caleb
Keep the conversation free flow
Good to know Abhinav! Going forward "free flow" would probably consist of a list of pre-decided topics to ensure the convo feels as relevant and interesting for viewers as possible, but would definitely be a new approach from our origin story format. Thanks for the input! -Caleb
@@backstagewithmillionairesI tink by keeping the conversation free flow, it seems more natural and Joe Rogan style 😅
32:50 "Just chummaa" how local lingo from south becomes everyday jargon when you live long enough 😂.hope the interviewer understood from the context😊
I think deep sea or ocean mining is going to be a thing in this decade, lot of companies and countries are involved and International Sea Bed Authority will start giving licenses to companies starting 2025 and it is estimated that India's exclusive economic zone has enough new age minerals to sustain our energy needs for 100 years.
I like this guy ,he is one of the the least robotic entrepreneur I have seen
Solar energy distribution is fantastic businesses, Tarun got masterpiece. Energy Storage in SuperCapacitor is the way to go.
Can Anybody tell me what happened to LML electric scooters . No news from that brand till now.
Enjoying every ride for the past 5 months or so.. Currently the best ev scooter in the market is what I wnat to conclude.. Honestly, the acceleration, reliability and clean glitch free experience is Something most EV makers skip on.. especially in India.... Watching Tarun speak of the experiences is great.. I mean they certainly deserve a top position in the market
good one
Thanks Chatterbox! -Caleb
I recently wanted Ev to buy but I researched a lot
and I got that Ev has issue of repair ability still no one want to solve low cost repairs so Ev is still more to come with after sales and repair options
energy storage is thermally by using insulated tank
Whats the name of the intro song name guys ?
One of the few youtubers out there who still replies to comments.
I don't have time to reply to every comment like I used to, but I read every one! -Caleb
Why Ather is not making a family scooter.. They market 450X as a performance-based scooter but there is a market for family-based scooters.
There are rumours that this is exactly what they're working on actually: twitter.com/tarunsmehta/status/1725114749346832391?t=B1YSu5nLf_rgkdWavVpE6A&s=19 -Caleb
GET THIS GUY TO SHARK TANK!!!!
So you mean Ather that sold 15k unit per year is no 1 in the world. What about Chinese brands like Ninebot, Niu and Segway that sells over 40 million electric two wheelers per year. 🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠
This guy is genius
I will say that ather failed to attract the activa customers
Till today I am saying my dad to buy ather he struck in only on activa and he is saying buy activa pertol and will wait activa electric scooter
I hope ather work on this and make a activa like ather to attract the customer like father to buy it
Buy TVS jupiter, it has better body build. You can feel the
Although there would be lesser CC available at almost the same price.
I want to buy ather but Ola S1 Pro Gen 2 fits my budget more but I might as well invest in Ather for this guy.. 🔥🔥
Have driven both. Ola is a lot better especially the dash.
i am an ather owner and my friend owns ola my friend gets a lots of bugs and glitches in scooter but my ather just runs seamlessly just twist the key and ready to go ather is a more reliable product if u are spending more than 1.5 lakh rupees u better spend it on a more reliable product than rather spending on a product with gimmicky features and less reliability
@@bigapple5842then you don’t have the capability to ride your scooter at full speed for long time. Speaking about the dashboard you people don’t have that many features that complement in riding experience you just have gimmicks.
@@The_Garage_Musician reverse throttle for regen is great on my Ola S1 pro.Don't have to use brakes at all. It also has adjustable coasting regen levels. Continuous 110kms driven at 60 to 70kmph. Have driven in hilly regions too. No problems faced at all. Maps works everytime unlike ather. Complements my ride much better than ather 😋. 2 years, 20000kms done without any major problem. Service cost: 700rs for front breakpads. Costed me 1 lakh on road in Maharashtra after charger refund. What more can I ask for😀
Ola has close to zero charging network
Age of empire and cod fan 🤩
Liked this episode and I didn't even know much about the backstory of ather
X thread incoming in the next 24 hrs with the whole backstory 🤫 if I remember I will try to share the link with you here once it's up. -Caleb
Here's the thread! x.com/caleb_friesen2/status/1724465054220009967?s=20 -Caleb
I know ather scooter are good but they are not selling in Himachal Pradesh.
I am disappointed by the progress on the sales as they are not doing good sales even though they were the first startup on the ev scooter. No four.. Not acceptable.. They should be atleast 2.
😊
Ather needs to come up with different designs.
Reupload?
Not that I know of... First time I'm interviewing Tarun Mehta. -Caleb
Yeah sorry. I got confused with the Raj Shamani podcast. @@backstagewithmillionaires
Invite Sridhar Vembu
He's definitely in my top 3 guests! 🤞 -Caleb
Doesn't matter if Tarun accepts it or not. The price of a product really matters to Indians. He will perhaps realize this when even the S1 X which costs about 90k would sell more than Ather's entire product lineup.
There's absolutely no question about their product quality, but they need to get their prices down if they really want to gain traction.
Chinese product quality never disappoints😂😂
Please tell this guy to not use Snapdragon 212 SOC. Its just terrible. Its ruining their dash. Atleast use snapdragon 625 like Ola.
212 really?
yet ola is highest seller two wheeler😂😂
Indian customers are like they believe a 200mega pixel phone is better than a 12 Mega pixel phone. Use Ola and Ather for one month each, then you will understand the hardwork of these engineers.
@@mayankmaestro i own ather.
Just bought an Ather 450s😁😁
How it is bro?
@@karthik3707 very good. Range is a bit underwhelming (85km) but performance and build quality is best in the market. Even the software experience is reliable and better than my dad's TVS iqube
Invite ola owner 👍.
I'd love to have him. If anyone from Bhavish's PR team reads this, this is an open invite to our podcast studio! -Caleb
Price 😢😢🙄🙄
Yeahhh that is the one major downside. Then again, I see them as the iPhone of the EV scooter world, so I guess the premium is warranted, even if it hurts the wallet. -Caleb
Need better range and better power for athur
Range, I agree. And again, hardware and software optimization, weight distribution also factor... Just adding a big battery won't work. A lot of R&D needs to be done. That's the reason ather not increasing battery capacity.
Power wise, ather is best.
Whatever interview he is giving , his sales team is totally useless , completely bad experience in ather puducherry centre. Totally bad attitude ignorant employees, no honesty in work at all .
Man if they ask me to give interview, I would totally cuzz this Ceo about his in ability to manage the sales rather he just focuses on r and d and totally don't know bussiness management.
Their scooter is Good, but what customer expects is customer care and proper reception both his showroom doesn't have. Totally crap experience of ather sales. I just bought a 450apex . People please don't fall in this crap experience.
Ather Scotter design doesn't look good
Which scooter looks better? -Caleb
@@backstagewithmillionaires ola
LOL INDIA's NO % EV NOT 1ST
Both of them seem to be herbivores(grass)😉
Bike👌 service 👎