@abhishek.balaji What is the definition of same in this case. No performance difference? No Main Component difference? Same duration to charge the Ather? Then why don’t you discontinue dot and give out portable charger as standard to all the bookings. At any given time according to me, I feel the portable charger is better than DOT. Atleast range anxiety will not be on the mind. The charger will be in the vehicle, so can be charged anywhere on the go.
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A few features that dot has extra are
- Locked to your own scooter. No point if a thief grabs it.
- It gets periodic updates from the scooter (I presume)
- Convenience of having a fixed position for owners with allotted parking spots
… so on.
But the portable charger gives freedom at the cost of the above, at least.
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Don’t give them Ideas to discontinue anything. It is good to have options and people choose what suits them the best. In your personal view Portable charger may be good. But someone else may say “I don’t want to carry that bulky charger in my scooter always when I don’t ride more”. Another person may feel that the Dot is safer as it can’t be stolen easily and even if stolen it can’t charge another vehicle. Compared to earlier atleast Ather is giving users to chose any one. Discontinuation of any one will be bad IMHO.
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I think @acorreya and @hemanth.anand put it well! You’ll have the option to pick between the two at the time of delivery 
A few users in Chennai have also not mounted their Dot and just put it in the vehicle boot. So whatever works for you
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True… I have portable charger with me. But couldn’t imagine using it regularly.
Dot or Pod gives so much convenience for regular usage. You can always buy or rent portable charger for all the other usecases
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Well, not sure about the others, but for me, DOT is a significantly better option that a portable charger.
- I will not be able to set up a electrical plug point at my parking area for obvious electricity theft worries
- The parking area I have does not have any place to keep a portable charger, and I can’t store it in the scooter because it will consume valuable space. At the same it, I don’t want to lug it around with me from my home to the parking all the time!
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Yeah, rarely carrying the Dot in boot space is easy and perfect fit with extension box. Portable charger must be little Faster than Dot charging, then only worth of buying it extra for long travels. Ather must consider this need soon.
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Driving a smart Scooter faster inside City alone is not great but Riding it on Highways fastly will be best. So for a long rides @tarun Ather need to provide an additional Battery pack or Fast charging Portable charger to Pan-India customers. Placing the Ather grid on highways is not in your list but just 55kms True range at high Speed is not enough.
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I also think, if you are providing seperate portable charger at extra cost, why not modify it to give better performance than DOT? Practically portable charger is for outside charging needs, you don’t want to wait hours to charge your vehicle.
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I think the current dot charger/ portable charger is using the most out of 6 amp socket around 3.5 amps which is equivalent to 3.5x220v around 770 watts which produces 12 amps at 60v dc correct me if I’m wrong, almost 720watts considering the loss in stepdown, so even to produce a full 6 amps load, 6x220v 1320 watts and producing a 60v at 20 amps might be a solution for Ather, but bear in mind the wires will definitely overheat, inside the house, also the portable charger will be even bigger in size, if not redesigned to a smaller, a full SMD version, but it would greatly affect the cost to around 30k which no one will be willing to spend
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It’s weighing the need for a high current power supply vs the convenience of charging at any 5A socket. And faster charging would need a much bigger AC to DC converter which kind of beats the point of it being a portable charger. This is kind of why the charging speed dropped a bit with version 2 scooters since I think the had to double down on making it compact and also quiet at the same time so can’t have too much heat either.
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I went for test drive yesterday in Pune. I’m planning to go for portable charger. The Ather person at test drive center wasn’t sure if Ather will do the installation(off course with installation fees) in my parking if I’m going for portable charger. So just want confirmation from you that your team will setup charge point in my parking regardless of the charging option (Dot or Portable) I’m going for.
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You get to chose either the Ather Dot or a portable charger. Ather offers a paid service for Ather Dot Installation at Chennai and Bengaluru, but there is not installation required for the portable charger. By definition, the portable charger is meant to be moved/carried around per the users convenience.
If you are looking for a 15a socket for the portable charger, that is something a local electrician can set up at your parking spot.
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Wanted to know the length of the cable between the charger and the vehicle in the case of a portable charger. The user manual of the Dot states it to be 2m. Want to know if it’s the same with the portable charger. Is a user manual for Portable charger yet available ?
You can check my post quoted below for the dimensions
Link to it will be available in the below post. It is being updated now…
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Thanks for the information.
Also, is the cable length between the charger and the vehicle of the Dot charger actually 2m (6ft) ? If it’s so would it make a difference in charging time due to higher resistance in comparison to 4ft length of the portable charger ?
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There is no difference in charging time. The only difference is that weather you need a fixed or a charger that you want to carry along. It is to keep convenient options.
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Hello Team Ather, If I buy a portable charger, will Ather take back DOT charger and adjust the amount towards portable charger?
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I think there is no cost adjustment. You have to pay same amount whatever (portable or Dot) you go for.
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