The electric scooter market is entering a phase of direct confrontation between the pioneer and the incumbents. Legacy two-wheeler makers such as TVS Motor Company, Bajaj Auto and Hero MotoCorp are rapidly scaling volumes, cutting prices and leveraging dense dealer networks to take share from Ather Energy, which helped build the category but is now focused on defending its early gains.
The backdrop is a sharply expanding market. The segment recorded 2.27 million electric vehicle retail sales in calendar 2025, with electric two-wheelers accounting for 56% of volumes. What was once a greenfield opportunity has become a scale-driven contest, with incumbents willing to use balance sheet strength and internal combustion engine cash flows to accelerate adoption, even at thinner margins.
Ather has crossed 500,000 cumulative units, with the family-oriented Rizta contributing over 200,000. In Q3 FY26, it sold around 68,000 units, up 50% year-on-year. October 2025 marked its first 30,000-unit month. Market share for the quarter stood at 18.8%. Regionally, the company continues to hold ground, leading the southern market with a 24.4% share, while Maharashtra stood at 18.6%. Odisha has climbed to about 15%, and Rajasthan and Punjab are now in the 14–16% range.
The challenge is playing out at the national level. TVS has consolidated leadership by ramping up the iQube and Orbiter. After selling close to 300,000 electric two-wheelers in CY2025, it opened 2026 with 34,440 retail sales in January, a 43% year-on-year increase. That translated into a 28% share of the 122,477 electric two-wheelers sold that month. Sales momentum continued into February, with TVS commanding around 29% share in the first half. Production is currently running at roughly 30,000 iQubes and 10,000 Orbiters a month, with further expansion under review.
Legacy Surge
Bajaj is chasing the top slot through aggressive pricing and reach. Its Chetak 2501, priced at Rs 87,100, undercuts competing mid-variants by a wide margin. In the first half of February, Bajaj sold 11,943 units, securing a 23% share. Its network spans nearly 400 exclusive stores and about 4,000 points of sale across 800 cities, giving it a distribution advantage that few pure-play EV makers can replicate quickly.
Hero, through Vida, is widening the funnel from entry to premium. With variants priced between Rs 73,850 and Rs 1.40 lakh, it sold 5,691 units in the first half of February and is expected to post its eighth consecutive 10,000-plus monthly tally, supported by one of the country’s widest service networks.
Ather, by comparison, retailed 9,505 units in the same period, translating to an 18% share. Nearly 70% of its volumes now come from the Rizta, aided by a battery-as-a-service option that lowers the upfront price of the Rizta S to Rs 76,000.
The divergence reflects structural differences. Ather built its brand on engineering depth, connected software and charging infrastructure. Incumbents bring procurement leverage, promotional flexibility and the financial cushion of large ICE portfolios, enabling them to push volumes more aggressively.
Scaling for Survival
Ather’s counter-strategy is scale. It operates two plants in Hosur with 420,000 units of annual capacity and is building a high-automation factory 3.0 in Maharashtra, which will lift total capacity to 1.42 million units when fully ramped up. Retail expansion is underway, with store count set to rise from 600 to 700 by year-end.
The remaining gap is the mass segment. Ather plans to address this later in the year with the EL platform, aimed at the Rs 1–1.25 lakh band and focused on North India. Management accepts the risk of cannibalisation but says that a lower-cost architecture could lift margins even if buyers migrate internally.
The electric two-wheeler market is no longer about early adoption. It is a contest defined by pricing discipline, distribution density and capital allocation. Ather is preparing its next move, but incumbents scaling faster are tightening the pressure month after month.