Ather Energy's IPO is a test of investor appetite for the second-place EV story

Ather Energy's listing on Indian bourses in 2025 brought the second major Indian electric two-wheeler manufacturer to public markets within a year of Ola Electric's debut, allowing investors to construct a direct comparison between two companies pursuing the same category with meaningfully different strategies, financial profiles and brand positionings. The Bengaluru company, co-founded by Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain and backed significantly by Hero MotoCorp, priced its IPO at a valuation modestly below its last private round - a common feature of the 2024-2025 Indian tech listing cycle. Ather's brand identity has always been built on premium engineering and a vertically integrated technology stack. The company designs its own motor controllers, battery-management systems and software platform rather than outsourcing to component suppliers, a choice that adds complexity and cost but also provides differentiation in terms of ride performance, software update capability and the rider experience delivered through its touchscreen dashboard. The Ather Grid charging network, which the company has expanded across hundreds of cities, adds a service infrastructure layer that reinforces the brand's credibility as a long-term player rather than a pure-volume game. The financial story presented to IPO investors was honest about the persistent losses in a business that is still investing heavily in manufacturing capacity, R&D and charging infrastructure. The Hosur factory is operating well below its theoretical capacity ceiling, and the unit economics improve meaningfully as utilisation rises. Hero MotoCorp's distribution network, which Ather has been more aggressively leveraging than in earlier years, provides a dealer infrastructure that the brand's historically direct-only approach had lacked. The context of Ola Electric's post-listing volatility - driven heavily by service-quality concerns - has been both a risk and an opportunity for Ather. The company's more selective expansion strategy and its reputation for service reliability have been amplified in the press in contrast to Ola's struggles, and there is evidence that some consumers who encountered difficulty with Ola service have switched to Ather as a perceived safer premium option. Whether this cross-brand quality premium is durable or a transient headline benefit is one of the central questions for the company's next two years. What to watch: the trajectory of market share relative to Ola Electric, TVS and Bajaj as the EV two-wheeler market matures, how quickly the Hosur factory ramps toward its capacity targets, and whether any new model launches below the current price point expand Ather's addressable market without diluting its premium positioning.

Original source: Mint