Hi All
It’s been more than 1 year and 2 months since the vehicle was delivered. I have just noticed that my Ather 450X Gen 2 showing abnormal charging and discharging when it clocked around 28000 Kilometers.
The battery is draining and charging so fast between 20%-50% SOC. Normally the Gen 2 450 X will charge at a rate of 1%/2.5 minutes. This calculation has been validated by many users. So the battery will charge around 25% in 1 hour. But my vehicle charged more than 40 in a single hour. So I have decided to contact the nearest Ather Space for checking the battery health by considering the range drop and abnormal charging.
I dropped the vehicle at Ather Space Malappuram and cleanly mentioned the above problems experienced. Also shared ride statistics screenshots as requested by them. My primary goal was to check battery health. But they rode the vehicle for 30 KM in a Mixed Ride + Eco mode. They got 30 KM in 50% and they concluded that the vehicle is fine and no need to check battery health further. When I checked the particular ride statistics the projected range was 112 KM with an efficiency of 24 Wh/KM. This means we simply get around 50 KM in 50% SOC with the same style of riding. So the range drop is visible. But they keep telling me that there is no issue found, Ather says 70 KM in ride mode and they got 30 KM in 50% which means the vehicle and battery are totally fine. Also, he is not ready for further battery health checks.
After this, I just talked to the Manager in charge of Ather Space Malappuram, He is also not ready to check the vehicle further. Also, they said minimal range drop can occur due to tire pressure and inappropriate belt adjustment. But the disgusting part is that they are not ready to check the belt even the air pressure in the tire. If I need to check more they told me to book a periodical service which will be only available after 21 March. I already told them that the charging speed is not normal and they charged the vehicle using a fast charging grid and were not ready to check the issue.
I just contacted @palalmobilityacc Kochi & Calicut Atherspace and they confirmed that there is some sort of software to check the battery health with the help of the Ather Bangalore team. Also when this type of issue arises they will give priority to that customer no need to book service and wait for several days.
After this type of arrogant, terrible & unacceptable experience, I decided to visit the Calicut Ather Space which is 70 KM away from home. They assured me that they will take this on priority and be ready to check the battery’s health.
Below are the screenshots of Charging at home with different time stamps.
At 01:26 PM - SOC is 4%
At 03:04 PM - SOC is 64%
So, Battery charged around 60% in just 98 minutes or in 1.5 hours.
Is there any standard operating procedure in place when the customer reports battery degradation? If it is already there, publishing it on forum or Ather website will help the customers to deal with this kind of issue. I am sure the Service guy and manager in charge at Ather Malappuram didn’t know how to deal with this kind of issue as well some basic knowledge about the thing they are selling. He even asked me how you get a range above 100 when the Ather says 85 KM in eco. ( Service guy mentioned that abnormal charging maybe a bug in the software. But when I asked him to reinstall the software he said he can’t do it. Software only updated automatically )
( Visible range drop between 20% SOC - 50% SOC. Charging is also normal except for this SOC level)
