Delhi/Bengaluru, July 11 -- Ather Energy Ltd believes that selling more vehicles will not give any electric two-wheeler maker an edge in terms of better profit margins, as all companies have similar cost structures as they access the same supply chain. Instead, it is investments in technology with a focus on improving processes that could help two-wheeler EV makers achieve better margins, according to the Bengaluru-based company's co-founder and chief executive officer Tarun Mehta. "There's an incorrect assessment of the automotive industry that whoever produces more will have a better margin," Mehta told Mint. "Volume has played a minimal role in unit economics over the years. There's a ton of value engineering. There's a lot of process optimization, and then there's a lot of technology improvement to bring in, which improves cost structures. Engineering is the superpower." The comments from the co-founder of India's fourth-largest electric two-wheeler firm come at a time when its legacy and new-age rivals are looking to scale up their overall sales in the segment. Currently, no electric two-wheeler firm has achieved a break-even point for its EV business. However, Ola Electric, Bajaj Auto and Hero have charted a path to profitability at a time when the top five electric two-wheeler firms have taken nearly 90% of the overall market share. In FY25, India sold 1.15 million electric two-wheelers, a 21% rise over the previous financial year. All these companies are lining up new launches and looking to scale up sales. Ather's largest shareholder Hero MotoCorp noted in its earnings call for the January-March period that it aims to scale up its monthly volumes to 25,000-30,000 units over the next two years, a rise from an average of 4,000 units in the last fiscal. Ola Electric, Ather's start-up rival, is targeting 25,000 sales per month to achieve Ebitda-level break-even. Meanwhile, legacy players TVS and Bajaj have also seen growth in their EV sales, with both surpassing 230,000 units in the financial year 2025. In FY26, both TVS and Bajaj have taken the lead as sales pick up. However, Mehta is not concerned about the sales gap with legacy players. "Everybody's betting on growth. Cost structures are similar at the buy level. So the difference between us and competitors is not an earth-shattering number," Mehta opined. "Your cost differences don't come about as much from scale. Scale has an impact, but a much larger impact is in engineering and design, which is why we are choosing to focus so heavily on these areas. The real race is between whether the competition can catch up on tech first or whether we can catch up on distribution first," Mehta said....