Ather Energy: Building India’s Next-Generation Electric Scooters Decoding Manufacturing

For decades, India’s two-wheeler industry perfected manufacturing at scale, but not innovation. Then came Ather Energy. Tarun Mehta, Co-founder & CEO, shares how Ather built every layer of the EV stack, from battery architecture to charging infrastructure, entirely from scratch. From a lab at IIT Madras to India’s one of the largest electric two-wheeler brands, Ather’s story is one of conviction over conditions. Tarun and his team built what didn’t exist: suppliers, technology, and manufacturing processes, turning obstacles into opportunities. In this episode of Decoding Manufacturing, Tarun shares insights on building deep R&D culture, scaling hardware with precision, and the mindset required to design in India, not just make in India. Chapters: 0:24 - What led to the birth of Ather Energy? 2:23 - The biggest challenges in the early days 7:03 - Why did Ather decide to go full stack? 9:38 - When did it truly feel at ‘scale’? 10:53 - Balance of IP vs speed during scaling 12:15 - Defining decisions in Ather’s journey 13:23 - Views on the current ecosystem 14:57 - Flaws of early-stage hardware founders 20:12 - Hardware vs software-led future 22:11 - India’s manufacturing prowess 25:35 - Manufacturing vs global imports 26:28 - Advice to deep tech & advanced hardware founders 26:52 - Lowest point while building Ather 28:54 - The strongest belief from 5 years ago 29:36 - Doing Ather differently in 2025 Follow SeedToScale on LinkedIn for more insights: Follow Tarun on LinkedIn: About Decoding Manufacturing: This series spotlights the audacious founders positioning India to lead the next industrial revolution by transforming deep tech into scalable manufacturing breakthroughs.

You can listen to Ather Energy: Building India’s Next-Generation Electric Scooters Decoding Manufacturing online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Ather Energy: Building India’s Next-Generation Electric Scooters Decoding Manufacturing is an episode from SEED TO SCALE Podcast Series by Accel by SEED TO SCALE Podcast Series.

This episode is 00:30:57 long.

This episode was published on Oct 14, 2025.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from SEED TO SCALE Podcast Series by Accel when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.