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: https://in.linkedin.com/company/seedt... Follow Tarun on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tarunsmehta/?originalSubdomain=in 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. #manufacturing #manufacturingprocess #AtherEnergy #DecodingManufacturing #AtherEnergy #Founder #EV #MadeInIndia #Innovation #manufacturing