Ather races ahead of Ola Electric on total income for the first time

New Delhi: Ather Energy Ltd’s total income, including interest from investments, has surpassed that of cross-city rival Ola Electric Mobility Ltd, led by Bhavish Aggarwal, which is trying to maintain its market share for the first time.

Bengaluru-based Ather Energy reported total ₹941 crore, a 57% increase from the previous year. Losses narrowed ₹154 crore ₹197 crore during this period.

In comparison, Ola Electric’s revenue fell 42%. ₹756 crore, but losses narrowed ₹418 crore ₹495 crore a year ago.

Of course, Ather’s revenue from operations ₹676 crore in the January-March quarter of 2025, surpassing that of Ola Electric. ₹611 crore. But Ola Electric’s other income was higher ₹117 crore against Ather Energy during this period. ₹11.7 crore.

Both companies saw improvement in their earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA margins, in the September quarter. EBITDA is a measure of operating profitability.

Ather’s EBITDA margin increased by 11 percentage points to -10%, while Ola Electric’s margin increased by just over 3 percentage points It fell to -18.1% during the period as both ventures chased profits.

First

Ather, which started selling electric scooters in 2018, saw its total sales exceed Ola Electric’s for the first time in the second quarter ended September. While Ather’s total sales volume rose 67% year-on-year to 65,595 units, its total sales fell by almost half to 52,666 as Ola Electric continued to struggle with service issues and increased competition.

Commenting on the results, Tarun Mehta, co-founder and CEO of Ather, said: “Q2 was a strong quarter where we continued to achieve steady growth in market share and progress towards profitability. We saw continued EBITDA margin improvement with increased operating leverage.”

“Our strategic focus on central India has paid off, with many states scaling rapidly. The rest of India has also grown strongly, making our expansion more broad-based. In the south, we continue to lead the market and see a new growth story driven by a denser retail presence in key cities,” Mehta said.

In the current financial year, Ather Energy is expanding its presence across the country by doubling the number of stores to 700. Ather follows the franchise model and does not own the stores, while Ola Electric operates more than 3,200 of its own stores.

“Central India emerged as the fastest growing region, rising from 8.8% year-on-year to 14.6% in the second quarter, driven by significant growth supported by an expanding retail presence and strong consumer demand in states such as Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra,” Ather said in a statement following the results.

Narrowing the sales gap

Ather’s rise emerges as one of the success stories in the country’s electric two-wheeler market in 2025. In the year ending March 2025, Ather sold 1,55,394 scooters; this is less than half of the 3,59,221 sold by Ola.

Now Ather is rapidly closing the gap with Ola: 111,673 scooters were sold in the first six months of the current financial year compared to Ola’s 120,858 scooters.

The company was listed on the stock exchange in May this year and has more than doubled its market value since then. As of the end of June, Ather’s backers owned 41.22% of the company; co-founders Mehta and Jain 10.28% and Hero Motocorp Ltd. He had 30.26%.

Ather’s market valuation surpassed Ola Electric in October and has remained above it. Shares of Ola Electric have fallen by 42% since its IPO. ₹76 per share in August last year.

Meanwhile, Hero MotoCorp’s chief financial officer Vivek Anand joined the seven-member board of Ather Energy on Monday.

Ather is focused on delivering profitability to investors with a dual emphasis on distribution and technology.

“There is a misconception in the auto industry that whoever produces more will have better margins,” Mehta previously told Mint in an interview. “For years, volume has played a minimal role in unit economics. There’s a ton of value engineering. There’s a lot of process optimization, and then there’s a lot of technology improvements that improve cost structures. Engineering is the superpower.”

Mehta said the race continues between old players and new-age companies in terms of technology and distribution.

“Your cost differences are not so much due to scale. Scale has an impact, but a much larger impact is in engineering and design, which is why we choose to focus so heavily on those areas,” Mehta said. “The real race is whether the competition can catch up with technology first or whether we can catch up with distribution first.”