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Summary: One electric scooter maker set out to make almost everything itself, down to the battery cell. The other built only what it needed and bought the rest. On paper, the first should be winning. Follow each scooter from factory to service centre and the picture shifts, as does what each must prove next.
Ola Electric’s Futurefactory in Krishnagiri is built for 10 lakh scooters a year. In FY26, it delivered 1,73,794. Nearly five of every six possible scooters were never made.
About 60 km away in Hosur, Ather Energy’s plant makes 35,000 scooters a month and is running flat out. Dealers who once kept two weeks of stock now hold three days’ worth. Chief executive Tarun Mehta said that Ather could have sold 13,000 to 15,000 more a month if it could make them.
Two Bengaluru start-ups, selling to the same Indian families. One has more capacity than it can use. The other has more buyers than it can serve.
How the race flipped
Ola arrived in 2021 with feature-rich scooters and aggressive prices, and within nine months was India’s best-selling electric two-wheeler brand. Ather was the technology-led niche player, popular mainly in Bengaluru. Today the order is reversed. In September 2026, Ather registered 30,920 scooters on Vahan; Ola registered 13,458. The turning point was the Rizta, a family scooter that took Ather from tech enthusiasts to families.
| Quarters | Ola registration count | Ather registration count |
|---|---|---|
| Q1 FY26 | 59,866 | 44,458 |
| Q2 FY26 | 51,771 | 56,922 |
| Q3 FY26 | 34,733 | 71,082 |
| Q4 FY26 | 22,272 | 82,026 |
| Q1 FY27 | 44,002 | 89,196 |
| Q2 FY27 | 41,649 | 90,784 |
Same scooter, very different returns
Ola’s strategy rests on one idea: make as much of the scooter as possible yourself. It builds its own motors, electronics, frames and battery packs, and now its own cells. Owning the costliest parts, it argues, lowers costs.
Ather is more selective. It buys motors and chargers and outsources electronics and chassis. It keeps design, software and its charging network in-house.
On paper, Ola’s approach should win on cost. At the factory gate, it does.
| Per scooter, FY26 | Ather | Ola |
|---|---|---|
| Units sold | 2,62,942 | 1,73,794 |
| Revenue (Rs) | 1,39,641 | 1,29,636 |
| Gross profit (Rs) | 29,442 | 39,702 |
| EBITDA (Rs) | -9,774 | -45,168 |
| Net loss (Rs) | -19,669 | -1,05,470 |
| Gross profit excludes other income. | ||
Q1 FY27 widened this gap. Ather’s revenue per scooter rose to about Rs 1.47 lakh while Ola’s fell to about Rs 1.16 lakh, shrinking Ola’s gross-profit lead to about Rs 6,700. Ola’s loss per scooter, about Rs 85,700, is now nearly 14 times Ather’s.
Ola’s biggest bet is the battery cell. At its Gigafactory, it is trying to bring cell manufacturing in-house. Bhavish Aggarwal expects its own cells to cost 10 to 15 per cent less than bought ones once production scales. That could change the sums above, if Ola can make cells reliably and in volume. Ola paused production in Q1 FY27 to expand its plant from 2.5 GWh to 6 GWh. In May, Ola promised every model would run on its own cells by September. But by August, about three of its nine or 10 did. For now, the cost advantage is a promise.
After the sale
In FY26, Ola paid Rs 231 crore to repair or replace parts under warranty. Ather paid Rs 67 crore, while selling about 89,000 more scooters. For Ola, behind those numbers were customers waiting at service centres. It has admitted that it did not stock parts there, so even a brake pad replacement could take 10 days. It says the wait is now about a day.
Ather built the opposite reputation. Buyers kept coming even after price hikes took its average ex-showroom price to Rs 1.61 lakh, and 94 per cent paid extra for AtherStack Pro, its software package. Its new True Health feature uses the scooter’s own data to grade key parts and estimate resale value, so owners need not take a mechanic’s word for it.
That trust is becoming a second business. Software, service, charging and accessories bring in 14 per cent of Ather’s operating revenue.
The tests ahead
Currently, Ather’s scooters cost Rs 1.21 lakh and up, but it reckons about half the market sits between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 1.25 lakh. The Konarc, launched in August from Rs 99,999, is its first attempt there, though the cheapest version arrives only in early 2027. It is built on a new platform that is Ather’s own cost bet, with a steel frame instead of aluminium, a simpler transmission and a cheaper braking system. It will face TVS, Bajaj and Hero, whose service networks are far larger than Ather’s 548 centres.
Ather’s new Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar plant is due to add 5 lakh scooters a year from January 2027, taking capacity to about 9.2 lakh. It will also bring painting and electronics assembly in-house. Ola built a 10-lakh-unit factory before the buyers came. Ather is building only after running out of room.
In August, Ola opened its network to dealers, targeting more than 500. Ola burnt Rs 775 crore in operating cash flow in FY26, against Ather’s positive Rs 32 crore. It raised Rs 780 crore in June and is now raising up to Rs 1,000 crore more through a rights issue.
What to watch
For Ather, three questions matter: whether its new plant reaches steady output on time, whether the Konarc wins new buyers or simply draws them away from the Rizta, and whether service and software grow faster than scooter sales.
For Ola, the tests are whether cell yields improve, how many more models switch to its own cells, and how quickly its dealers go live. Ola has often missed its own targets, so the gap between promise and delivery matters as much as the plans themselves.
Also read: Analyst's Diary: Is Ather the better EV poster child?
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