Host: Praveen Gopal Krishnan
Guests: Kunal Khattar, Founding Partner, AdvantEdge Founders; Narayan Sundaraman, independent strategy and brand advisor and former Head of Marketing at Bajaj Auto
What happens when one of India’s pioneering electric two-wheeler startups moves directly into the mass market?
In this episode of The Ken’s Two by Two, Kunal Khattar joins Praveen Gopal Krishnan and Narayan Sundaraman to discuss Ather Energy’s next phase of growth as it enters the highly competitive ₹1 lakh electric scooter segment.
After spending more than a decade building its technology, brand and manufacturing capabilities, Ather is taking on a market where incumbent manufacturers TVS and Bajaj already have significant scale, established distribution and profitable internal-combustion businesses behind them. The discussion examines whether Ather’s strengths as a technology-led EV company can translate into mass-market leadership.
Topics covered:
- Why Ather’s move into the ₹1–1.25 lakh segment is strategically significant
- How the new EL platform could change Ather’s ability to compete at scale
- The challenge of taking on TVS and Bajaj in their strongest customer segment
- Why brand trust may matter as much as technology and product specifications
- Ather’s evolution from EV pioneer to publicly listed, mass-market manufacturer
- What its next phase could tell us about the competition between startups and legacy OEMs in India’s EV transition
Listen to the full episode on The Ken:
Ather's Rs 1 lakh scooter walks into TVS and Bajaj's market