Bitten by the electric bug: Start-ups charge up for e-vehicle push

Entrepreneurs, backed by PE, automobile firms, and e-commerce promoters, develop products and solutions for the coming electric-vehicle boom

Tarun Mehta, the 28-year-old co-founder of Ather Energy, is set to commercially launch his electric scooter by the first half of next year. For Mehta and his 270-odd product development team, it has, of course, been a gruelling experience to build a vehicle from the ground up, including the battery, with hardly any mature vendors available for support.

But armed with over 30 applications for patents, Ather Energy is putting together a plan to take the next big step — to manufacture the product at Bengaluru. Says Mehta: “We are working with around 120-130 vendors and are setting up a manufacturing