Internal Updates

abhishek.balaji · October 25, 2019, 5:30am

Unfair fare affair

Hey everyone, a few of you have expressed your disappointment on the need to pay for the Ather Dot installation charges. You are right. It’s totally unfair for you to pay extra because of a deviation at our end and it was never our intent to keep it that way. It was a miss and before we jumped in and said “we agree”, we wanted to make sure that we did the background work of updating the portal, communication, refunds etc.

Now that it’s taken care of, here’s the good news:

We are waiving off the installation charges for owners who were in the original Sep’19 batch in Bengaluru. All owners from this batch who’ve already paid, don’t worry. We’ll refund the amount.

Please note that If you fall in this batch and want to avail this waiver, you need to make the full payment before the end of your full-payment window timeline specified in the payment intimation mail. In case the payment is made after the closure of the original payment window as specified in the mail, the installation may be chargeable.

subramanian.g · October 25, 2019, 11:27am

Hey everyone!
We delivered the first batch of Ather 450s in Chennai, with a special delivery event at our Ather Space in Wallace Garden, Nungambakkam

abhishek.balaji · November 11, 2019, 7:17am

Mobile app update

A new version of the app (2.9.4) will be released shortly and will roll out on the Play Store and App Store in a day or two. It carries bug fixes and some minor user interface enhancements.

abhishek.balaji · November 13, 2019, 5:08am

There have been announcements by internet service providers about phasing out 3G technology, which has led to speculation and anxiety amongst our current and prospective customers. More specifically, however, our internet service provider Vodafone India has neither begun switching off 3G anywhere nor announced any timeline. We are in regular conversation with Vodafone, and are keeping a close eye on this. In any case, connectivity is an integral part of the Ather 450 experience, and to this end, we are committed to finding a solution before the sunset of 3G by Vodafone in India. We will keep you posted.

abhishek.balaji · November 13, 2019, 8:14am

We’ve noted that in exceptional cases, few of our owners have faced a problem of minor discoloration of the dashboard screen on very high exposure to sunlight.

As a proactive measure, we’ll fit a protective film on the screen of all the affected Ather 450s the next time they are up for periodic service.

Don’t worry, the cost is all on us We would appreciate if you don’t raise a service request just for this. Also, the vehicles that will be delivered henceforth will not have this issue.

abhishek.balaji · November 25, 2019, 9:38am

Many of you have also voiced that communication needs to be improved between full payment and delivery. Starting with this batch, we’re piloting communicating your order status at major stages over email.

Here are the major stages when you’d get an email from us.

Completion of full payment - Those who pay upfront, this is obvious enough, but if you’re under Loan/Lease, we’ll let you know when the financing partner approves and disburses the downpayment to us. Only after this will your Dot get dispatched and invoice & insurance processes start.
Initiation of registration - This includes information about collecting Form 20 for Upfront/Loan customers, and then sending your application to the RTO. Post this, you can expect communication from the RTO through SMS. For those under Lease, Autovert takes care of this step.
Completion of registration - Once your registration number has been allotted and intimated to us, we will prepare to get your vehicle delivered. This involves getting the HSRP printed, final quality checks, and scheduling your delivery.

The emails of course would have more information regarding the completed & next steps at each stage, so you know what’s going on till delivery. The timelines and processes for these would also vary slightly between upfront, loan and lease customers, and between Chennai and Bengaluru customers.

For queries on the status of your financing, reach out to them below:

Autovert customer care
076762 17677

Hero FinCorp
080-41270119

tarun · January 3, 2020, 8:40am

Hello folks,

Happy new year to all of you. Hope you had a great new year.

We have started chalking out the plan for this year. And this year is all about scale for us. More cities, faster scale up, more charging points – we are excited to finally take the 450 to all over India in 2020. And, there’s something special for all of you who have been supporting us over the years.

But before that, a quick wrap up on 2019:

Bigger community + new city

Streets of Bengaluru have been buzzing with Ather 450 for more than a year and now Chennai too. Special thanks to the support of the 50+ Ather owners from BLR, who travelled with us to Chennai making the launch iconic.

The power of data and owners’ feedback

Combining over 5+ million kms of ride data with your feedback, we have released 6 over-the-air updates. It’s been extremely satisfying to see the vehicle upgrade every few months. Also, all the insights gathered will help us bump up the hardware in future releases.

Along with the product, our systems and processes have also started to stabilize. This means we are ready to take the next big leap.

What’s happening next week?

All the owners will be receiving an exclusive invite for something new that’s coming up this month, which will be up for grabs for the whole of India. But, this invite gives priority access to our owners and close followers only.

A few more days to go…

Exciting times ahead!
Tarun

abhishek.balaji · January 6, 2020, 10:42am

For @everyone guessing what’s coming next, here is one more thing to keep your Monday interesting.

abhishek.balaji · January 13, 2020, 9:59am

Do you work at a corporate?

Your company can now join Ather’s corporate partner program - Together Electric! Get office charging solutions, exclusive privileges, early product access and so much more for your employees. Interested? Connect here: http://bit.ly/450TE

tarun · January 29, 2020, 12:24pm

Hi folks,

We unveiled the Ather 450X yesterday to great reviews. Many of our community members could join the unveil and made it special for us.

I believe strongly in our community and we listen closely to your feedback. Whether it’s the warp mode, or extra range, or faster charging, or dark mode, or Bluetooth or 4G LTE - honestly a ton of it is your input that led to their introduction with the Ather 450X.

But beyond the product, this time we had a big announcement around pricing. It’s a first in the industry and which is why I spent several minutes highlighting why we came up with it. We decided to introduce a whole new way to own an electric scooter starting at 99k, with additional subscription packs. We have seen many prospective EV buyers worry about battery degradation and we want to remove that as a concern for our customers.

The new subscription plans allow us to go beyond a typical battery warranty, with a new concept of lifetime warranty on the battery pack all while keeping higher performance commitments from our side. Subscription pricing includes recurring costs like data charges, public charging and new features through OTAs. That means that if your battery health ever goes BELOW 80%, we will just replace it - the biggest worry with Electric vehicles is just gone. Not only that, we have also kept options open to exit the subscription, buy the vehicle upfront, snooze subscriptions when you are on vacation, lease the vehicle, get an EMI on it etc etc.

Clearly we confused some of you

I apologize, but in retrospect we should have done a better job explaining the concept of subscriptions and its many benefits. I have personally gone through almost all the posts since launch yesterday and I understand that many of you are unclear about pricing, duration, what’s included and what’s not, benefits etc.

With Ather 450X, our prices did go up and we could have spent more time explaining that to at least our community better. I wasn’t kidding when I said that the community is our best creation till date and one we are the most proud of. And whether you buy the Ather 450X or not, we would want to make sure that you continue believing in Ather and a clearer communication remains step 1 towards it.

Towards that, over the next couple of weeks we are planning a series of meetups, open house events, online AMAs etc with our community members and owners to make sure that we can answer all your questions. We will also be soon uploading a detailed blog post explaining the pricing, the subscription and the Ather 450X in more detail.

Tarun

abhishek.balaji · January 29, 2020, 2:00pm

More about Ather 450X. Pricing & scaling up.

The long-awaited Ather 450X unveil is done. You have seen the live stream, the news, checked it out on the website. And we’re glad that you have shared your views on the forum. Majority of them are on pricing and subscription

There’s only so much that we could explain in the limited time of the press launch. And, rather than answering all your queries through the Forum, we’d love to discuss it in person, in an Open House.

We would love to explain the pricing model in-depth, how it plays out for Ather and most importantly hear your point of view on this.

We look forward to this discussion.

Open House (for Bengaluru Owners and 450X Pre-Orders)

When: Saturday, 1st Feb ‘20 | 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Where: IBC Knowledge Park, D block

Ask Us Anything - Online meet-up (for everyone)

Alternatively, we are also hosting an online meet. You could join us there as well.

If you’re an owner and/or have pre-ordered the 450X, check your inbox tonight for a link to RSVP for the event and the AMA.

abhishek.balaji · February 6, 2020, 10:51am

Hey @everyone,

A lot of you have posed questions and feedback over the last week on pricing, subscriptions and the 450X Plus and Pro.

We missed out explaining at the launch on why we increased prices on our products. Here’s @tarun’s take on this:

abhishek.balaji · February 11, 2020, 9:30am

Chennai, have questions on the Ather 450X? Let’s meet.

Hey @Chennai,

We are coming down to take up all your questions around the product, explain the pricing model in depth and how it plays out for Ather, and most importantly we want to hear your point of view.

Open House

When: Sunday, 16th Feb ‘20 | 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Where: Ather Space, Nungambakkam

RSVP: https://ather-energy.typeform.com/to/VH4z1f

Also get a chance to check out the 450X up close!

abhishek.balaji · February 12, 2020, 11:03am

More friends, more perks.

Introducing the Ather Referral plan

Hey @450X-Pre-Orders,

We’ve got several requests from you folks and @Ather_Owner, to start a referral program. We’ve initiated one for the 450X.

How does this work?

Share your referral code (sent over email) with your friends
Your friend applies the code on pre-ordering
Both you and your friends get rewarded with Ather credits and other goodies, including Ather merchandise

What are the perks?

1st referral — A t-shirt from our merchandise series & Ather credits worth ₹1,500 when your friend completes the purchase

2nd referral — Ather credits worth ₹1,500 when your friend completes the purchase

3rd referral — Bluetooth wireless earphones from a premium brand & Ather credits worth ₹2,500 when your friend completes the purchase

4th referral — Ather credits worth ₹2,500 when your friend completes the purchase

5th referral — A cool Ather merchandise to complement your Ather scooter & Ather credits worth ₹3,000 when your friend completes the purchase

6th onwards— Ather credits worth ₹3,000 when your friend completes the purchase

What do your friends get?

On pre-order — Gets ₹500 OFF on the pre-order amount of ₹2,500
On purchase — Gets Ather credits worth ₹1,000

For more details on how this works, check out this blog post:

abhishek.balaji · February 20, 2020, 10:59am

Four more cities made it to the list!

Hey folks!

We have some exciting news about 450X availability in different cities. We’re confirming Kochi, Coimbatore, Ahmedabad, and Kolkata as the next band of confirmed cities. This is in addition to Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Delhi NCR, Chennai, and Bangalore.

What does this mean?

If you’re from one of the four cities confirmed in this list, you’ll see:

Deliveries starting in 2020 along with the other cities.
Before deliveries begin, you’ll spot Ather Grid, our fast-charging network coming up in your city, along with an experience center!

Join your city group for discussions.

Head over to https://www.atherenergy.com/ if you haven’t pre-ordered yet, or register interest for a test ride when we’re in your city!