Comparing Total Cost of ownership

Is leasing Ather the better option than buying with an upfront payment?

Guys, would like to discuss on this. Is it a better idea to lease ather than paying upfront? Here are some details:

ON LEASE:
First year 4.5K X 12 = 54K
Second year 3.5K X 12 = 42K
Third, fourth and Fifth Year = 2.5K X 36 = 90K
Total: = 186K

interesting part is that this includes 4 year worth Ather subscription (~40K) and comprehensive insurance for 5years (~15K). No battery replacement cost after 5 years as you can just return the vehicle and get a new and the latest model with latest hardware and features. Plus some FD interest on the money you saved by upfront payment :wink:

ON UPFRONT PAYMENT PURCHASE
One time on road cost = 130K
Ather one plan for 2,3,4,5 yr = 40K
Insurance (comprehensive one) for 4 yrs = ~15K
Battery replacement: min 30K
(*really doubt that even with commoditisation of li-on tech, the battery cost will ever go below this)

Total = ~215K

And here you will be stuck with old generation model which may or may not support new tech hardware or feature beyond a point.

What do you guys think?

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I second that idea for leasing based on the details. Is Ather scooter available for lease?.

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This analysis is really excellent. For sure, leasing makes sense.

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Lease plan details available under the Financing Options in Pricing section:

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Good Calculation.

  1. I think 5 years insurance is already included in 130L.
  2. You should also subtract resale of Ather 450 after 5 years.
    (Thinking)What will be that cost, electric scooter like Ather 450 after 5 years? Or is it just aluminium scrap?
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Since Ather scooter is green, Ather Company should also consider buy back/recycle option for its scooters, thus making itself as revolutionary and responsible company towards environment.

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1. In 130K the coverage for 5 year insurance is just the 3rd party liabilities and not comprehensive.
2. Resale I highly doubt will give much return if the battery is already nearing its endlife and the hardware is 5 year old. Maybe just the scrap value as you mentioned. Its basically like someone trying to sell a used iphone 5 in 2018 with end of life battery.
In terms of mechanical capabilities nothing will deteriorate much but it will be a competition crowded market in 5 years now since every big/small company is getting into electric segment offering advance features and latest tech and hardware.

What is the GST rate on lease plan? Does EV has exemption?!

Awesome calculation. It obviously makes sense to go for lease than purchasing. Thanks for the in detail math :+1:

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after 5 years they wont simply accept the old vehicle which is used for 5 yrs and provide a new vehicle. So after 5 yrs also the vehicle is not urs but you paid the vehicle cost. to upgrade to new tech vehicle u cannot change the vehicle again plan may change. so instead resale is better or just change the battery is enough.

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hey everyone - The leasing model that you’ve referred to for your calculations has undergone some changes. Our leasing partner - Autovert announced these to us recently and we’ve updated the Financing section of our website now to reflect these changes.
What’s changed?
They’ve added flexibility to the down payment amount and the tenure of the lease. The maximum tenure, as it stands now, is 36 months, after which the lease will have to be renewed.
You can now refer to these revised numbers on the website.

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Just wondering, was it a miss from Ather to come up with this plan earlier or did it suddenly become a need soon after realizing from the detailed calculation that its actually turning out to be in favour of customers.
I somehow was kind of expecting similar response from Ather.

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hey @kumaranchal, the leasing plan was worked out not by us but by our leasing partner, who felt that it would be good to offer customers more down payment / monthly payment options. We connect our customers to our leasing partner to offer more financing options. :slight_smile:

Great analysis. How does lease option compare to availing a loan?

Exactly… You need to consider the resale value… Even if it’s 30k at the end of 5 year. If you are selling then battery replacement not needed too.

So, at the end of 5 years both lease and owning total expense is same 1.85 lac, where as you have your scooter with you which you can continue to use or sell at 30k minimum or use buyback option that time.

Let’s say l would want to change the purchased bike and I don’t want to replace the battery. I would be saving 30k of that battery cost. Here my expense of owning the bike is almost the same as leasing it for 186k. At this point, if I sell it even at a scrap rate I might get about 15k in return. So the damage in total would be 170k? If this makes sense, I would just buy it and not break my head on all the terms there would be by leasing one.

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Hi ,

I just did an running cost comparison of my Petrol bike verses Ather e-bike based on my daily usage to see how much it make sense to invest 1.3Lacs on this e-bike.
let me know if anyone has any suggestions to improve this prediction on savings.

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Good assessment. Only that ABS is Missing.
Apart from that the balancing and riding degree of freedom of bigger wheel will be missed.

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Do you think a bike needs servicing every month? I consider it once in 3 months. While I agree that the cost is 2.5k

Yes you are correct, even I do servicing once in 3 months, but this servicing includes parts change cost (which includes expected and unexpected issues with bike ) as well and I have taken avg. of till date service cost and calculated back on per month basis.