Ather Energy narrowed its consolidated net loss by a third to ₹51 crore in the first quarter of FY27 as revenue surged 87% on the back of higher electric two-wheeler sales. Improved operating leverage also helped the company turn EBITDA positive for the first time.
Revenue from operations of the Bengaluru-based EV maker nearly doubled to ₹1,216 crore, driven by an 81% jump in vehicle sales to 83,173 units during the quarter. Demand continued to outpace supply, with quarterly pre-orders rising 158% year-on-year to 1.5 lakh units against actual production of 83,000 units. New vehicle enquiries also increased 95% to 7 lakh during the quarter.
Co-founder & CEO Tarun Mehta attributed the surge in enquiries to multiple factors, including the Prime Minister’s call to electrify cooking and transport as a national agenda, as well as policy support through the PM E-Drive scheme and the Delhi government’s latest EV policy, which he said are playing a major role in shifting consumer confidence towards electric vehicles.
“There are now availability concerns on petrol and diesel. Rising petrol prices in India are definitely improving the overall total cost of ownership for electric vehicles,” Mehta said during the company’s first-quarter earnings call.
The electric two-wheeler industry recorded registrations of 5.25 lakh units during the quarter, up 68% year-on-year, with penetration increasing to 11% of the overall two-wheeler market and over 25% of the scooter segment.
Ather ramped up production steadily through the quarter, manufacturing 24,000 units in April, 28,000 units in May and 31,000 units in June. “Our current facilities have a max production capacity of 35,000 units and …we are almost at 100% utilisation,” Mehta said, adding that the company is accelerating capacity expansion to meet demand.
The company’s existing manufacturing facility at Hosur has a maximum capacity of 35,000 units per month, or around 0.42 million units annually. To support the next phase of growth, Ather’s Factory 3.0 at AURIC in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar remains on schedule.
Phase 1, with an annual production capacity of 0.5 million units, is expected to commence production in the third quarter of FY27, taking the company closer to its target of one million units of annual manufacturing capacity. Upon completion of both Phase 1 and Phase 2, Ather’s total installed annual production capacity across its manufacturing facilities will reach 1.42 million electric two-wheelers.
“Phase one of this (AURIC) factory unlocks 5 lakh units, which is what we are all razor focused on,” Mehta said, without giving any timeline for the Phase 2 expansion.
The company plans to manufacture about 60,000 units of its first mass-market electric scooter based on the new EL platform across the AURIC and Hosur facilities. The first product on the EL platform will be launched on Ather Community Day on August 29.
Cost of raw materials rose 90% year-on-year to ₹957.32 crore, driven by higher prices of copper, aluminium, lithium and crude-linked materials. Mehta said the commodity cost impact was probably higher than the company had anticipated during the first quarter. As a result, gross margin declined to 22.4% from 25.4% in the preceding quarter.
Mehta said the company estimates a 5-6% hit to gross margins during the quarter because of commodity inflation. “We do believe that there is still some more risk in the coming months of it escalating a bit more,” Mehta warned. To partially offset rising input costs, the company implemented price hikes during the quarter, taking the average selling price to ₹1.61 lakh from ₹1.50 lakh in the fourth quarter of FY26.