Discussions on pricing and subscriptions

@abhishek.balaji let’s see a case that i purchased vehicle(Ather 450x pro model) under subscription (lets say Rs99k plan) and used vehicle for 1 year. Then if i want to cancel the plan after1yr, how much extra i may want to pay?Is this possible? After this exit, can i subscribe for Ather connect plan alone?

It is possible. If you did a search before posting this question, you would’ve got your answer. That one day where @abhishek.balaji was like a marathon runner and answered questions one by one…has answers for almost everything about the 450x pricing. Anyway, below is the answer for your question.

Yes. You can choose to take whatever subscription plan that exists at that time, Ather One, Ather Connect, Ather Charge, Ather Service or whatever. You also have the choice of not taking any subscription plan too.

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Could you please think of a model for folks who won’t extensively use the bike? Most of us use the bike for ~400km per month since we have car for long drives. I have just reached 21k on my 6 year old petrol bike. We might not reach 50K KM before 10 years so please provide a nominal plan for those customers and restrict the warranty on KM instead of years.

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I too agree with the views of the author.

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You are right … it’s not worth at This price…old price was okay.

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In the above article, things are put somewhat right. Ather serious this as a premium scooter, so it comes at a price. It is is to decide whether to buy it or not. Keeping that away, personally I wish 450x was more affordable. Now that we see the chance of more plans that might come, it has brought a smile back to me.

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@abhishek.balaji @Ather.Team One cannot have two swords in the sleeve. Likewise you cannot say that you were selling 450 under a loss and hence we increased the price for 450x which is way beyond nominal. If you are talking about norms even in automobile industry no one raised prices like two folds. They increase in a gradual manner year by year hence the impact will be nominal. Then again not most athers were sold through your experience center. It’s more of a word of mouth which happened. This strategy of yours have already given a bad impression among many even me who have been following you even when the company was not established. You can give thousand reasons justifying your pricing and few will say this seems better but at the end there are many who still discuss offline about your crazy pricing structure whether it may be upfront or subscribtion based. We bikers discuss in our groups and not everyone has written that in your forum. So please take this as a very serious caution and have a conscious discussion. There are many examples in market wherein the product did not get succeed just due to wrong pricing. Take it in any industry not just limited to automobile.

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Soooo true.

  1. Another major point is, Ather itself mentioned that they will bring lower-end models while unveiling 450 2 years back.

  2. I don’t think the bill of materials is so much higher even for 450. Yes, Battery prices are high but most of it should be offset by the subsidy and almost double the price of traditional scooters.

  3. I think Ather’s growing fixed costs (employee wages, rents, etc…) are leading to this situation. Ather even recruited high profile industry veterans to resolve supply chain, manufacturing issues, etc… I don’t think they come cheap.

  4. The automobile companies needs scale to survive let alone thrive. Ather is not able to do that and still limited to 2 cities after almost 2 years hurting them badly.

Hope they pull through these difficult times and successful.

Ather 450x Production cost reduction techniques from me

If Ather can assemble bike @ local dealership service center initially that would reduce the cost of transportation SHIPPING @ low cost

There are thousands of mechanical looking for jobs in their core field and internship in manufacturing WORK FORCE @ low cost

I love to work for Ather

I might be misinterpreting the recommendation, but if this is how it had happened, then Ather would have had gradually increased the price over the past year and made sure it was close to 1.5L when 450X was ready for launch, so that it wouldn’t shock the customers. I am actually glad they chose to keep it at the original lower price to the last possible moment, until they absolutely had to increase. Sounds like a more genuine intention to me :sweat_smile:

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It’s a catch 22 situation. Ather could have hiked prices a years ago, but that was when Fame 2 with a higher subsidy kicked in. They could have increased it again after a couple of months, but who’d want to hike prices just as they are expanding to another city (Chennai)? Or they could have done it after that but that was when GST was cut down to 5%.

If they had increased prices at anytime in the last 12 months, folks in this very same forum would have accused them of being “Greedy”, “Profit seeking”, “Investors over customers “… etc.

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When @abhishek.balaji says it’s industry norm on software locking few features then it should be considered on the pricing front as well, is what I was trying to convey. Show us one manufacturer (not premium category) who has raised the price of its product like this. The price difference is around 41-51k between 450 and new 450x plus and pro variants on road bangalore. Even car manufacturers increment not to this extent. This all comes from our experience of owning multiple cars and bikes over period of years.

When you are talking about fame 2, I have read somewhere and not sure of the authenticity, to be eligible for fame 2, the ex showroom cost should be lesser than or equal to 1.5 lakhs. Only then the government will pass on subsidy. But here for 450x it has already crossed that region. Company claim the prices are inclusive of subsidy. So if we add a subsidy of approx 25k to announced prices then it would be 1.74 & 1.84k ex showroom which makes it not eligible for fame 2. Pls correct me if I’m wrong.

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It’s just introductory pricing, @anuonweb. We have explained this multiple times in this forum on why we had to increase prices. Selling the 450 just was not sustainable at the prices. We chose to sell the 450 at that price, since there was no market existing for such a scooter.

Instead of just increasing the prices without updates, we added some features, updated the specs, added colours and then raised the prices.

Since the FAME subsidy limit is on the ex-Factory pricing ceiling of 1.5L, both the 450 Plus and 450X meet.

When can i expect collector addition of 450x…? When it will be delivered? Can i exchange 450 with 450x?

@Ather.Team, My Ather 450 order is open for payment and you guys are not pitching in all the options out on a table for 450x to decide which one to go for. I am eagerly waiting to own a Ather…

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The case is same for me also.But my window already opened long back.Still waiting to get full details of 450x.

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Do you mean to say that options are not enabled while attempting for payment?

Yes please @Ather.Team @abhishek.balaji, please release the theme of collector’s edition and the revised subscription plans. I really want to decide between 450 and 450x.

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Specifications, Pricing, Looks and Delivery timelines are all known. What more are you expecting?

If at all something is not known it is how the collector’s edition will look like. If you like it you can take it, or you can take one of the 3 colours shown on launch day. On pricing front there may be a higher downpayment lower monthly subscription payment option coming but even that’ll add up to 149k and 159k and nothing else. Ather one/Ather connect/ Ather charge pricing for future will apply to both the existing 450 and the upcoming 450x. So IMO, you have everything to decide on which one to go. If I’m missing something, can you guys be specific on what you are expecting from Ather?