Ather’s Bossman Tarun Mehta Takes A Candid Dig At Bajaj Chetak

Ather Energy’s CEO and Co-Founder Tarun Mehta took a very subtle dig at Bajaj Auto when he came across an advertisement of the Bajaj Chetak at his apartment complex. He posted about his feeling on X stating “I see that the competition has found my apartment,” but soon after clarified that Bengaluru’s favourite electric scooter brand continues to be from Ather.

The Bajaj Chetak has been one of the best-selling electric scooters in the country for quite some time now. The Vahan portal has revealed that the Pune-based manufacturer has consistently ranked either 2nd or 3rd by selling the most number of electric scooters in the country. While sales of Ather Energy have also grown over the past few months, it is still nowhere close to Bajaj Auto’s sales numbers. 

But when it comes to Karnataka, Ather outsells Bajaj with wherein the latter holds just 10 per cent of the electric scooter market share in the state. Tarun Mehta's second statement, "Bengaluru Loves Ather", referred to that. On that note, the Rizta recently surpassed the 1 lakh sales milestone, and that speaks volumes about the increased preference among customers for Ather’s family electric scooter. 

Bajaj Auto’s increased sales was primarily driven with the introduction of low-cost, affordable variants like the Chetak ‘29’ series. This was a strategic move from the company, and also a generic trend from the entire electric two-wheeler sector – where manufacturers have realised the potential that such sub-1 lakh priced EV hold now. Especially after the Government started to cut down on subsidies that was a major catalyst to drive the EV growth in the country. 

While Ather Energy is yet to retail its own interpretation of a low-cost electric scooter, the brand did confirm to us earlier this year, at the time of taking its IPO live, that it is working on one. This upcoming model will be based on a completely new platform called “EL” and will be powered by a smaller battery than the 2.9 kWh and 3.7 kWh units found on the Rizta and 450 range. To know more about Ather’s future plans check out the interview from below: