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Ather bullish on family scooter Rizta for pan-India reach

Ather bullish on family scooter Rizta for pan-India reach


Vehicles are going to have a lot more software embedded in them in the coming years and those who master the hardware-software integration will stand out, Tarun Mehta, co-founder and CEO of IPO-bound electric vehicle (EV) maker Ather Energy, said.

“Our software and algorithms are making a difference to making the vehicle much smarter and futuristic. A lot of our new IP sits in the interface of hardware and software,” Mehta told businessline on the sidelines of an event on Saturday.

The founder said he is excited about the future of EVs in India and the country has the potential to “become the centre of gravity globally” for quality EVs, especially 2-wheelers.

“We [Ather] have demonstrated very good market share in the South because our product the Ather 450 was a right fit for the South. However, the Ather Rizta’s storage, convenience and bigger form factor has appealed to the Northern market and it will be the product that gives us mass reach,” he said. Ather recently launched the Rizta as a relatively larger family scooter compared to the Ather 450.

Speaking at a conference organised by TiE Chennai, Mehta also discussed Ather’s inception in Chennai out of the IIT-Madras ecosystem.

He reminisced about how the two friends and co-founders came together on a shared vision of electric mobility and how their time at IIT-Madras helped them build and prove their prototype. ”I think it [time in Chennai] was a period of no distractions. Building our company away from Bengaluru, not attending any startup conference, not meeting and pitching VCs at that point really helped us to build with all conviction,” he said. However, Ather subsequently moved to set up its operations in Bengaluru — a move Mehta attributes to better access to software/ product talent and VC funding.

Commenting on what he sees as a work-in-progress for the country’s EV ecosystem, Mehta said that more work needs to be done on growing the charging infrastructure. “There is clear customer intent [to buy EVs], but there is still potential to scale the charging ports and infra,” he said.





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