1.5 Years Review of Ownership

Ather vehicle reviews
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Dear Ather,

It has been a long time since I wanted to write a detailed review, not just about the product, about the company, the people, the community, and beyond. You guys have built a fantastic product. A product which we have never seen in the Indian market. A product that has no alternative. It’s like a Google Nexus/Pixel. You cannot compare these with any other phones. Not even the Samsung or the OP. The 450 was love at first sight. With the first pull of the throttle itself, I had decided to buy it. And the wait was long, and I finally took it home. No problems whatsoever. That does not mean it is perfect. There are small issues. Some of the problems, such as mirrors, sharp body panels, and switchgear (this is the worst part), should have been of better quality. But overall, as a product, there is very little to complain about. As a first-gen product, you guys have nailed it.

This is not a 5/10k review. No one does it better than Hemanth, Rajesh, and Raghav. Please refer to their reviews for the same. However, I just crossed 5k kilometers a few days ago. And it has been a pleasant experience, well mostly.

Details of Issues/Service

  1. BMS – September 2019 – I usually had a habit of shutting it down if unused for more than a day. I had charged the scooter to 100%, and I shut it down. Little did I know that it will not switch on after two days. After two days, it wouldn’t switch on. The service team had already diagnosed the problem, and they picked up mine and returned it in about 2-3 days. The service team swapped my original battery with a new one. I was super happy with the TAT of the issue. But I am still unaware of the problem or the permanent solution.
  2. Charger Fan – October 2020 – Less than a week after my periodic service, I ran into a charging error. It was C014. I called up the CS the same night, and I explained the issue to them, and I remember he asked me to troubleshoot by doing a hard reset. Nothing worked. And he wrote it down along with some other issues and told me that he would send someone to pick it up the next day. The next day (Saturday), the runner arrives, and to my surprise, he wasn’t aware of the C014 issue at all. He couldn’t pick it up as the range was low, and they sent a pickup truck the next day (Monday) to pick it up. They sent it back after 2-3 days.
  3. Need improvements related to the communication of the service team. As Ather is an electric vehicle and people are new to this, we need an accurate report of the problem and solution in a mail after the service request.
  4. Service Log – I still do not understand why this is not available to customers after the service. It should be sent in the mail or should be available in the app always.

Improvements to Connected Services and Ather App

OTAs and App sync in automobiles were something special. Especially in the two-wheeler segment. And Ather has done a pretty good job in pushing out OTAs periodically. Features to bug fixes everything has been taken care of. However, the app hasn’t been improved much over the past couple of months.

Some of the improvements I would like to see are –

  • Day/Month wise reports
  • IFTTT/Google/Alexa integration
  • Energy consumption by Day/Month
  • Service records and history
  • Battery Health Report
  • Service alerts
  • Remote Shutdown
  • Rectify inaccurate ride logs and missing trips
  • Charging limiter
  • Overall better UI and experience

Not everything is bad. I have met a lot of amazing people throughout my journey with Ather. People on the forum to employees working at Ather. We know each other by names, and they take my feedback very seriously. I am addicted to reading the forum every single day. I slowly became the forum’s moderator, which gave me many perks, which I am ever so grateful for. Chennai launch is one of the main highlights. None of the automobile companies have ever done a launch like this. Taking 60 odd owners and their vehicles to Chennai and letting them take center stage, and explaining the product to various potential customers is unseen. And then there was the Ather 450X launch at Delhi. I was silently praying that Abhishek or someone from Ather would call me and book my tickets to Delhi for the event and the same thing happened. I am very thankful to the team for giving all these opportunities to me. Let me not forget the open house and the owner’s meets. Ather knows how to treat their customers and take their feedback.

Improvements I wanted to see with the 450X

  1. A better launch in general. The Delhi launch event had a lot of confusion regarding the battery subscription, collectors edition, and actual rollout in other cities other than Bangalore and Chennai.
  2. Mirrors, seats, and body panels have been an issue with the 450. I wanted to see better mirrors and seats on the 450X. I have heard that the body panels are better this time. I am still waiting to see it in person.
  3. Switchgear – This has been one of the significant con with regards to the 450. The things that we touch should be of the utmost quality, especially when we pay around 1.6L. I wanted to see better quality switches, customizable buttons, and backlit switches—a big miss.
  4. I am happy that now it has a better dashboard consisting of a Snapdragon chip running on a custom Android skin. Also, E-sim and 4G are great. However, having Android, I wanted to see more customization, more details, and reports built into the dashboard.
  5. Better integration with the Ather Application
  6. Better range and efficiency – 450 was already quick. We would have liked to see a better range rather than have a faster scooter. 90kmph is fast enough for the city. 100+ km range would have been a better deal.

Great miss with the 450X and deliveries

  1. A complete product is still not shown to the public.
  2. Test rides of the 450X, including the new dashboard, is still not available.
  3. Delays in announcing new delivery dates – completely unacceptable.
  4. Battery subscription, which was a significant part of the launch event, is not available for customers.
  5. The availability of accessories is a big miss again. Performance tires, TPMS, Bluetooth helmet, will only be available next year.
  6. Series 1 isn’t complete. Delivering an incomplete product and asking them to wait till May 2021 is not ideal.
  7. BATTERY DAY – I hope Abhishek remembers this. We would like to see a session on how the 450X is better than the 450. Comparison between 450 and 450X. And the rest of the details regarding the improved battery, BMS, and other technical aspects.

Sim swap/4G Upgrade, October 2020 Open House, Upgrade Plans and Ather Health Certificate

  • Sim swap and 4G Upgrade - 4G was a big miss in the 450. I am still not sure why the Ather team omitted the 4G. I have been using 4G since 2014/15, which is well before Ather started rolling out the first set of vehicles. Although Ather gave us a temporary solution to swap out sim to BSNL or wait for the 4G dongle, which will take a couple of months, they should have finished the migration before Vodafone stopped their 3G services, i.e., yesterday. I had to use the navigation twice and had a very horrible experience. Ather could have prevented this if the migration had been finished and not waited till the last day.
  • October 2020 Open House - we were surprised to see the Ather 450 Plus at a lower cost, buyback options for the 450X.
    • The battery subscription was canceled for now, at least.
    • Revamped Ather subscriptions – these are fantastic.
    • Delivery timelines and upgrade plans (delayed again) – not acceptable to announce a day before the payment window
  • Ather Health Certificate – the Upgrade Plans and Ather Health Certificate did not impress me. I don’t understand why we need to pay Rs. 1695 + GST, which sums to Rs. 2000 for a health certificate. Battery health and service records should be available in the app. And shouldn’t be charged for. The battery is the most crucial component of the electric vehicle. Its health status should be made available in the app itself, just like how iOS has battery performance in the Settings.

Next 5 – 10 years for Ather

  • I would like to see more stability as a company.
  • Better management and Costing
  • Improved Customer support and After-sales services.
  • Set a standard for the EV market and charging infrastructure.
  • Increase grids locations.
  • Improved supply chain management to meet the demand.
  • More affordable scooters.
  • Entry into the Bike segment and cars if possible.
  • Better coordination with finance and sales partners.
  • IPO!!!

Dear Ather, you guys had set a huge standard and showed us how exactly an EV should be. We had a lot of expectations from you guys. But in recent times, the decisions taken by you have let us down and some prospective customers frustrated. I want you guys to bounce back. But I feel there is some mismanagement in the company. There is a gap between top management and middle management. If you guys want to be successful, you need to restructure your management and get your costing right. Costing has been a big letdown. Increase in the price of the portable charger or battery subscription plans or the AHC. It is a huge letdown. Please work on the management, pricing, and supply chain and work on them fast. I still have some faith left in you guys, and I wish you luck in your future endeavors.

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Absolutely well said, i hated when 450X was not upgrade with ABS . It would have been great move for EV market with some standards set. I. Would have definitely bought 450x in place of 450.

i am still surprised govt has not made standards considering power and torque and just sticking to cc

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Ather BSNL Sim Swap

  • Initial appointment date – 18/11/2020
  • Rescheduled appointment date – 11/11/2020 (was casually going through my emails and clicked on reschedule and got a prior date)
  • Appointment time – 10 AM
  • Time taken for the whole process - 2 hours

In short, I am very impressed with the whole process.

I reached the Proto Lab at 9:50 and handed over the scooter. I guess mine was the first scooter for the day. The service representative told me that it would take around 2-3 hours if I didn’t need to charge up. I had some work in Jayanagar, and I went back to the Proto lab around 11:30. I made a couple of calls and watched YouTube, and it was ready by 12:15. I was amazed to see how quickly they completed the swap process. But, to my surprise, I never saw any other scooter getting the sim swap. It looks like a very small number of 450s have gone in for the sim swap.

I would highly recommend the sim swap to all the Ather 450 owners. BSNL 3G has good coverage too. And speeds are good enough for navigation and sync. The process has been streamlined and it doesn’t take a very long time now. If you have 2 hours to spare that should do. If people are waiting for the 4G solution, don’t wait. Try the sim swap. You should be happy with it.

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I have been trying to get the sim swap done for over a month now. But the only appointments open are working day mornings!

(On the one occasion that I did take a day off, I ended up at the wrong center!)

If they just opened up a weekend slot, I am sure more people will actually get internet working on the damned device. Now I just use it like a regular old bike, cause the internet never ever works.

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It will be done during service if not done.

How much kms is pending for next service?

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Hello guys,

My name is Karan Rupera known as (KARANKOOL) in Mumbai Ather whatsapp group, I am here posting and sharing my 1 year ownership review about my Ather 450X (GEN 2) which completed 1 year now and I drove almost 6k in 1 year and I am sharing my reviews and feedback with you which most of the new buyers will get answers in it whatever to go with Ather or not.

Let’s start from before buying experience which came to my mind in around July 2021 where I was looking for new 2 wheeler which is good at performance as well as in term of reliability and for the range I don’t travel much on gearless scooters as none of them are comfortable for long journey so the range was not an issue for me.

I have started searching on google where should I go with ICE or EV as there was lots of question going on in my mind where I was getting Activa or Jupiter which is best in ICE segment and it was costing around 85,000 approximately but I wanted good looking scooter and also power, for that I was looking for TVS NTORQ or ACCESS 125 or BURGMAN. So I have started checking the price of the same scooter which was around 1,10,000 to 1,20,000 around on road price in Mumbai. Than I calculate the per km rates too for my information that I how I will spend on petrol if I drive almost 500kms per month. So the cost of petrol per km comes around Rs. 2.5/km vs Rs. 0.5/km on my Ather. So in this price I was like should I put my money in to ICE or should I go for EV. So then I started searching the rates for EV scooters too.

I have in my mind known brands like PURE EV, OKINAWA, AMPARE, HERO, TVS, CHETAK, OLA (which that time on paper only as it has not launched yet) and Ather. These brands are near from my home which is almost around in 5km radios (NOT Ather) so I was like in case I will get some issue with my scooter than I will go there and get it done there so there will be no issue. So I have started visiting the showrooms where EVs are sold. I first visited the AMPARE scooter where I have seen the scooter and I didn’t like any of them, next I have searched for PURE EV which is also good scooter (in looks) as chetak but still I found not good for me. Then I have searched for HERO, TVS & CHETAK but unfortunately that brands scooters are not available at my area, CHETAK is available at Ulhasnagar, TVS iQUBE was also not available. On 15th august OLA was launched which was direct rival to Ather and almost great in every segment of all the competition out there but the issue was I wanted delivery as early as possible and and OLA said they will start delivering in December (not remember). And other side Maharashtra govt. has also announced the subsidy on EV which was highest that time in any states. Now lastly I came for OKINAWA which I heard old brand and selling there products quiet a few years so I was sure that product will be good so I visited the showroom and got some details about the scooters so I have tried there best selling scooter but unfortunately I didn’t found good for me as my height is 6 feet and the scooter floor board is too high which was very uncomfortable for me to ride for more than 10mins and also not good while turning as handle is hitting my knees everytime so Okinawa is also the out of the race.

Than I came to Ather as this brand’s showroom is far from my home so I have planned for that on weekend and than I took a test drive and I liked the scooter so much as it has digital screen like tablet screen on your dashboard, sporty look, great warp mode which is as fast as 125cc scooter or more than that. More than that person told me that you will also get charging stations at your nearby and there are lots of charging stations in Mumbai so you can charge your scooter wherever you out of charge unless any of EV out there no one is providing the same so which is reduced my range anxiety as I was sure that in case sometime I planned far trip like to go marine drive or any other known place in Mumbai, I am sure that I whenever I will get out of charge than I will have this charging station to topup my Ather which that time no other brand is providing. Also the person told me that if anytime or anywhere you get out of charge and there is no charging station nearby than you can call on RSA (Roadside assistant) and they will pick your Ather and drop it to nearest charging station. So that day I have made my mind that whatever the question are in my mind that time is cleared that day and I was going to book my Ather without checking any ICE scooters, and I have booked my Ather in October 2021 where that guy promised me that he will gives me delivery of my Ather on Diwali which is around 15-20 days later from the date of booking.

Now on the second note, I was staying in Mumbai where most of people have flats and staying in building so the charging my Ather is very difficult so I have given letter to my society for the permission for charging my Ather but my society doesn’t have any EV and new to EV so they are not knowing what to do and society reply me that you will not get permission for charging your EV and I don’t have any fixed parking in my society so the issue was very serious that where will I charge my scooter so after discussion with my society I told them that allow me to charge my vehicle as I have already booked the vehicle, so the society comes to 1 thing that they will not allow me to install my charging port or anything rather than I have to use society’s charging port where that is installed on near entrance lobby, meter room where society’s watchman charge their phones too so we have settle that I will pay Rs.50/charge to my society for using connection. And now another side booking EV, I got little worried that I have made a good decision to buy an EV or should I stick to ICE scooters as that time not much people are buying EV so I got confused that I have taken right decision or I have wasted my money.

On 29th of October 2021, I got the delivery of my Ather and I was very happy with my Ather and during 1 month I have observed my scooter for any kind of issues in scooter but I was not facing any kind of issue with my Ather and on the other side almost 8 out of 10 people are asking me that how’s the scooter and what are the range you are getting in your scooter and all. So I was like that people want to buy EV but they have lots of question inside them like me which is stopping them to buy EV. And after a month and months I was getting very sure about my Ather that I have made a good decision to buy Ather and not any other EV as they are very old brand and also they do test their battery in Indian condition whereas other brands like OLA or any other brands not following such things so that becomes problematic for consumers like us. As we have seen lots of fire incidents in other brand and not on Ather due to same reason.

Having Ather in my life is the great choice and very convenient for me and there are lots of features in Ather like on board navigation for navigating my route which has google maps which we almost use daily not like other brands which use MAP MY INDIA, Bluetooth connectivity where I can easily see who’s calling me and even accept and reject calls from my screen without taking out my phone from pocket, it has good and bright display under direct sunlight so there is no issue for looking at screen on direct sunlight, it has reverse mode which is actually useful not like other brand, another useful feature for me is guide me home where I park my scooter at night where no lights there so my scooter light turned on till next 10 secs after turning off the scooter, it has ride statistics feature where I can track my driving condition like how I am driving my scooter which is useful for me to get out of best range on my Ather. it has better fitment like grab handles unless like OLA scooter which has flimsy and not up to the mark quality.

Now let’s talk about the ride quality and everything which is the best part of the scooter, first of all when I choose EV I have so many questions in my mind that this will take load of 2 people or not? As I am driving my scooter 90% of the time with pillion so around 120-150kgs between load, after that I had question that it will climb hill normally or not like other EV scooter which doesn’t even touch 50kmph, but then I ride the scooter I found that it has much more torque than I needed, even if I ride on eco mode with pillion, there is no issue with power lag or I want more power in scooter, it is also climbs flyovers very easily and we don’t even need any kind of more power from the scooter. Things about software is like you ask for any feature, they have it or they will provide it. Since last 1 year I have seen that software update has changed almost everything and got evolved so much that there are so many features now in app and dashboard where you don’t have to worry about missing features. Most important thing which I want to share with you guys is that on the dashboard it is showing TRUE RANGE which is the best thing Ather has done where you will surely get that much range in your scooter and that is the exact number you can rely on. I have never seen any kind of range-dropping issue, never breakdown anywhere till now.

Another important factor about the vehicle is reliability where you know the brand is reliable which solves your issue and another thing, I am that kind of person who believes in product reliability as in case of any kind of issue, I will not have time to solve the issue of the vehicle. Also, I don’t want to see my vehicle at the service center rather than my parking lot. I know and also many people know the pain of how it feels where your vehicle is in the garage more than your parking lot. So spending some more money on good thing is more wise decision rather than spending on new brand vehicle where there is no garage or no service station in your city.

Finally, let’s come to the review and my experience. My main moto behind this vehicle was to solve my daily purpose where I want to go nearby, sometimes my wife also uses this vehicle, and most of the time we ride with a pillion. Ather has never let me down anywhere, where I can say that Ather doesn’t have this thing or this feature. The only thing we wanted was more range, for me it is fine to travel nearby but if the vehicle has a 100km range then it is a great product so the company now came with GEN 3 which has a 100km + range so that issue is also solves by them. I am very happy to owe this Ather in my life and this is my first 2-wheeler so you can imagine how was I feeling before buying the first 2-wheeler for me.

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