Ather Energy has ruled out electric scooters priced under Rs 1 lakh.

A beneficiary of Electric Mobility Promotion Scheme (EMPS), 2024, the company has factored in the subsidy under this scheme in the price of its newly launched family e-scooter Rizta which will retail from Rs 1,09,999.

When asked if the company would bring a product under Rs 1 lakh — the Rizta price range is between Rs 1,09,999 and Rs 1,44,999 — Tarun Mehta, co-founder and CEO of Ather Energy, said: “Our price of Rs 1,09,000 is not an unaffordable price. The market is maturing. We can theoretically make products at a cheaper price but people don’t want that.”

He also ruled out cutting down features to make cheaper scooters.

“We are in the game of offering more features and not cutting down features to make cheap vehicles. We are not excited to build products at
sub-one lakh prices,” said Mehta.

On the migration from ICE to EVs in the scooter segment, Swapnil Joshi, co-founder and CTO of Ather Energy, said: “Only premium scooter buyers in the 125 cc and above are migrating to e-scooters. The 110 cc buyers are not upgrading and to convert this segment is a challenge.

“They want more confirmation on battery life, range and their perception of EVs has to change.”

Ather Energy, which enjoys about 13 per cent market share in the electric two-wheeler space, is betting big on its family scooter to capture markets in the north and west where such scooters are popular.

So long its product portfolio includes the 450X, the 450S and the 450 Apex — mainly performance scooters — which constitute 15 per cent of the market. Its market base remains in the south, including Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

“We are trying to address the rest of the 85 per cent of the market with the Ather Rizta and we hope the Rizta will be a bigger story for us than the 450,” said Mehta.

The company, in which Hero MotoCorp has a 40 per cent stake, is reportedly taking the IPO route this year and plans to raise $400 million in share sales.