The battle for e-scooter supremacy appears to have kicked-off, with 2021 having seen an unprecedented surge in demand. Ola Electric, which launched its much-hyped S1 series rode-in on little more than pomp and promise, through which it managed to accrue Rs 1,100 crore in its two-day online purchase window. The hype was enhanced further by claims of building India’s largest two-wheeler factory, with a targeted capacity of producing 10 million units of what is, according to them, the best e-scooter the world has ever seen.
Nearly four months since its highly-publicised Independence Day launch, customers are yet to take delivery of the scooter. Ola Electric is attributing the delay to the global semiconductor chip shortage despite aiming to achieve a production capacity of two million units in its first phase.
Ather Energy, Ola’s closest competitor and rival, on the other hand, has surged ahead as the most-profitable electric two-wheeler maker in India. Once a relatively obscure, Bengaluru-based startup, Ather appears to have finally come of age, having just announced a second manufacturing facility in Hosur, Tamil Nadu. Among its many noteworthy milestones this year, the Hero MotorCorp-backed Ather has registered 20 percent month-on-month growth since November 2020 and, after hitting its best-ever monthly sales figure in October (Rs 63 crore), and achieved an annual run rate of $100 million.
Where Ola managed to build hype, Ather was ready to capitalise on it, with ready-to-ride scooters delivered ‘on time’ and not ‘in time’.
Of course, Ather Energy, which was founded in 2013, has had an early start in the game compared to Ola Electric, founded in 2017. Like Ola Electric’s founder Bhavish Agarwal, Ather’s co-founders Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain too come from the IIT stock.
Unlike Ola Electric, however, Ather’s moment of reckoning has come after years of incremental change, and growth. Its first products, the Ather 340 and the 450 offered nothing superlative. They were simply smart, connected, and faster alternatives to ICE scooters, at a time when customers weren’t looking for alternatives as hard as they are now.
Different Approaches
Ather managed to gain consumer interest, and soon the 340 was discontinued given that almost all queries concerned the visually identical but more powerful Ather 450, which boasted of a robust finish, top-notch interactive software, and sprightly performance. Unlike Ola Electric who bought the Dutch e-two-wheeler startup, Etergo, and consequently the rights to its design, Ather’s scooter was completely home-grown. It spent a considerable period in the incubation chamber before it was production ready. The 450X, which currently serves as its flagship product, was released after 18 months in developmental purgatory, where the brand managed to redesign the battery pack, and improve cell chemistry, resulting in a markedly superior product than before.
Currently, Ather manufactures its own battery packs, and has filed for 13 patents on design and manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries. In an interview with Forbes India, CEO Tarun Mehta stated that the first batch of Ather 450’s took a full week to assemble. At present, Ather has an annual production capacity of 120,000 units per annum.
Ola’s Futurefactory, after receiving an investment of Rs 2,400 crore, is yet to meet its lofty target of 2 million units, even as its first phase draws to a close. With its second manufacturing facility, Ather aims to reach 400,000 units per annum. What it has delivered on so far, includes over 220 fast charging stations across 20 cities in India. Ather is rapidly adding fast-charging stations to its growing network every month, with a target of 500 across the country.
Unlike Ola Electric, Ather has also begun to open retail outlets alongside its network of 25 experience centres across India. The retail outlets address the registration hassles, etc. for the consumers, much like Ola does; except with the latter, the scooter is scheduled to be delivered to the owner’s address, straight from the factory.
Hype and ‘Hyper’
Where Ather’s story began with modest promises, slow developmental phases, and incremental change, Ola Electric counted on the one word that tantalises both consumers and investors: market disruption. Ola Electric wasn’t here to improve everyday mobility, it was here to revolutionise it. Its competition isn’t other e-scooter manufacturers, it is internal combustion-driven private transport which still occupies nearly the entirety of the sales chart.
Ola Electric’s offering wasn’t merely a superior one, it is purported to be the greatest of its kind, yet. Faster, with a longer range, and much better acceleration than anything offered by the competition, local or otherwise.
Yet, during the first set of press rides, Ola Electric still didn’t have a production-ready offering on site. Running on a beta version of its home-grown software, the scooters, many of which delivered on their promise of speed, were saddled with battery overheating issues in their ‘Hyper’ mode. They were also missing several of the features, like ‘hill hold’, multiple visual profiles, and visual modes, among other things.
Ola dismissed this as a beta software glitch which would be ironed-out with OTA updates, before or shortly after the first batch of customers take delivery. However, a month-long extension to the initial delivery window seems to suggest that plenty needs fixing.
Dizzying Heights
Ola, in its trademark larger-than-life fashion, aims to have the widest and densest electric two-wheeler charging network in the world. It aims to have over 100,000 charging points across 400 cities. On October 23, a month before its first set of scooters were originally supposed to be delivered, Ola set up its first hypercharger in the country.
Ola’s dizzying scale of operations, and novelty value is unlikely to see it emerge on top if the brand’s entry into what is still a niche space, continues to be plagued with delays. Many highly-anticipated, revolutionary products, a la Tata Nano, have failed to make an impact in the market, because, among other reasons, they failed to get basic quality-control measures in place. The Nano tried to address this with a more upscale version — the Nano Twist — but by then, the dye was cast. Ola S1 Pro however, is far from the lowest common denominator of scooters. At Rs 1.3 lakh a pop, it’s a premium offering, much like the Ather 450X and Ather 450 Plus.
David vs Goliath
Both IPO-bound brands have a series of high-profile investors. For Ather Energy, this includes the likes of Sachin Bansal, and Hero MotorCorp’s Pawan Munjal. Interestingly, Bansal also happens to have invested Rs 650 crore in Ola’s ride-hailing business. A sum that’s equal to the one outlined by Ather over the next five years to increase production capacity. Ola Electric also counts Hyundai Motors, Tiger Global, and Ratan Tata among its many illustrious investors. The two see an overlap in terms of investors as Tiger Global pumped-in $12 million worth of funding for Ather, back in 2015, while Munjal was reported to have put in $1 million of his personal wealth in Ola Electric.
With Ola’s valuation touching $5 billion, Ola Electric is set to become a true giant in the EV space. However, a delay in delivery dates, purchase windows, and customer test rides suggests that thus far, in this battle of David vs Goliath, the former appears to have the upper hand.
Parth Charan is a Mumbai-based writer who’s written extensively on cars for over seven years.
Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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