Mobility Giants in Flux: The Unraveling of the “Burn-to-Earn” Model in India

• Editor
• February 18, 2026
• Business, Tech & Innovation, Tech Updates
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New Delhi, February 2026 — India’s urban mobility and electric vehicle (EV) sectors are undergoing a brutal reality check. Once the darlings of the venture capital world, giants like Uber and Ola are grappling with collapsing revenues and strategic identity crises. Meanwhile, their more focused, lean rival, Ather Energy, is proving that vertical integration and product-first strategies might be the only way to survive the “Capital Winter.”

The Uber Shock: When 89% of Ride Revenue Vanishes

Uber India’s latest filings for FY25 have sent shockwaves through the startup ecosystem. The company reported a net loss of ₹1,512 crore—a massive leap from the ₹89 crore loss the previous year. Most alarming, however, was the 89% collapse in ride-hailing revenue, which tumbled to just ₹88 crore from over ₹800 crore.

The drop isn’t due to a lack of demand—Indians “Ubered” a record distance in 2025. Instead, the crash is structural:

• The Incentive Trap: To fight off the “Rapido effect,” Uber surged its spending on driver incentives and customer discounts by 33% to ₹2,516 crore. Under current accounting, these payouts are netted off against gross revenue, effectively wiping out the company’s topline.
• The Subscription Pivot: Following Rapido’s success with zero-commission models, Uber has been forced to shift toward subscription-based pricing for drivers, abandoning the high-commission takes that previously inflated their revenue numbers.

Ola Electric’s “Structural Reset” Amid a 55% Revenue Plunge

The story is equally grim for Ola Electric. In Q3 FY26, the company reported a 55% year-on-year revenue drop, falling to ₹470 crore. Vehicle deliveries plummeted by 61% as the company struggled with service execution issues and growing competition from legacy players like Bajaj and TVS.

Founder Bhavish Aggarwal has termed this a “structural reset,” claiming the company is intentionally slowing down to fix fundamentals:

• Restoring Trust: Ola is focusing on fixing service infrastructure gaps that impacted brand trust.
• Efficiency Drive: The company aims to lower its EBITDA breakeven to about 15,000 units per month by optimizing its store and service network through AI-led automation.

Ather Energy: The “Anti-Ola” Performance

While Ola and Uber struggle, Ather Energy has emerged as the clear winner of the quarter. In a stark contrast, Ather reported a 53% surge in revenue to nearly ₹996 crore for Q3, while narrowing its losses by 57% to just ₹85 crore.

This robust performance has attracted the “Smart Money.” Institutional giants including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority recently snapped up a 1.92% stake for ₹521 crore in open-market transactions from the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF). Analysts point to Ather’s focus on high-quality hardware and a sustainable, less aggressive growth model as the reason for its soaring national market share, which recently hit 17.4%.

Bottom Line: The End of the “Growth at All Costs” Era

The divergence in these numbers marks the end of an era where massive capital burn was a substitute for a sustainable business model. Uber is being forced into B2B services and logistics to survive, while Ola is retreating to “fix its roots.” Meanwhile, Ather’s rise suggests that in the Indian market, long-term winners are those who prioritize product reliability and unit economics over flashy advertising and artificial discounts.