Hey guys i wanted to start this thread to help people understand how the ownership of an EV is quite different from an ICEscooter, and to help people accept the slight premium investment price tag of an EV over an ICE please share your rough calculation of the savings you’ve made since youve started riding your ather, comparing it to your previous Ice, bike scooter, whichever. Lets try to make each persons savings story as a single post so it’ll help potential EV adopters to understand the hugely reduced running costs of an EV
Ownership duration: 1 Yr 2Months - 6600Km
Total savings - 16,000 rupees ( in my case ) + the money I would have spent servicing my previous ICE bike = 19,0000 Rupees
I moved to the ather 450 from my 3 year old Royal Enfield Thunderbird 350 which used to give me an average of 30Kmpl and if i had continued to use my bike, i would have consumed about 6600/30= 220 Litres of Petrol taking an average of about 80 rupees to the litre. it would have costed me about Rs 17,600 Since i started riding my ather – since i dont really have a track of the number of units my Ather charger consumes, but i hope i can round it down to about 50Km on a charge and taking a nice margin of 700Wh taking 3 units for every 50km, ive consumed about 396 units ~ 400 Units of electricity. now going a bit off topic. i live in an independent house and i have an extra meter for a rented room which isn’t in use so i’ve pulled a line from that meter so that pre ather bill isn’t affected by a ton and i also have a motor, an AC and a treadmill on this connection. the tariffs in my area are about 3.75 rupees for the first 30 units and 5.2 Rupees from 30-100 units and on most months I use under 30 units and rarely over. 30 units. this a bill of that meter. i used about 30units a month regularly. but i use the motor and treadmill on a daily basis now which take a significant amount of the consumption, this is to show the cost i pay for my units So personally for me of these 400 units- majority of them have come at 3.75 ruppes/unit so in my case my running cost has been 3.75*400 = ~ Rs 1,500 thats takes savings to 17,600-1,500 = 16,000 Rupees in savings in just over a year. and all this savings is right into my pocket since i sold my bike at 1.2Lakhs and put that same money into the Ather 450 + ghe portable charger. I understand that most people will pay about 6 rupees per unit and taking that, the running cost of the 450 comes to about Rs 2,400 so the savings become 17,600-2,400 = 15000 rupees in savings. scenario 2 to help people who will be moving from another ICE scooter. your scooter would give you about 40kmpl and doing the calculations your ICE would cost 13000 rupees to run for 6500Km not even considering the service costs involved and taking 2400 rupees as the EV running cost. you have a saving of over 10,000 rupees. considering the average activa and ather 450 are separated by 1.13L- 0.83L = 30,000 rupees so it would take you about 3 years to make up on the higher base price for the 450X owners, i’d suggest you compare to the closer performance oriented APRILLIA SR 150 which costs about 1.3L on road and 450 X at 1.7L thats about 40k which you’ll make back in abour 4 years or about 25000Km of usage not to mention the service costs involved in th ICE and the added features in the 450X.
Note : I know a lot of these calculation are very rough and a ton of approximations, any suggestions on corrections. please do DM me. I’m open to any corrections. Lets keep this thread clean for the future EV owners who’d like to understand the ownership model. And do share your own EV story and savings Ciao
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Hi @Suraj_madhu, it’s a nice review. Though I don’t have my Series 1 delivered to me yet, I’ve made some calculations just to finalize my decision to buy Ather are as follows-
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I’ve been scouting some options against Ather and I had finalized Suzuki Access BS6 which is priced at Rs. 98000 on road in Pune
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My weekly running is around 200kms, which converts to monthly running as 800kms, and yearly running as 10000kms.
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Now petrol cost in Pune right now is ₹90/ltr, with considering 50km/ltr mileage for new Access, I’ll roughly need around 200 ltrs of petrol which is ₹18000 for petrol expenses
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Now for every 2000 kms I service my bikes with oil change, it costs me around 800/ service, so 5 servicings in a year which is ₹4000
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Total running cost would be ₹22000/year
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Per unit charge in Maharashtra is ₹4/unit till 100 units & ₹7/unit after 100-300 units. My monthly consumption is nearly 70 units for home use
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As per above yearly running of 10000kms on Ather, if I charge Ather in a range of 20-90%, 450x will run around 55kms in this battery range, so per charge I’ll get 55kms mileage on Ather, so units consumed per 800km for a month or 15 charge cycles is 15X3units= 45units per month
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Cost of 45 units/month is ₹225 (considered average rate of ₹5/unit), yearly cost ₹2700+ ₹2400 data connect + ₹2400 service plan= ₹7500/year
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Difference would be 22000-7500= ₹14500/year So in 4 years I will cover my extra cost for Ather 450X
Even it is too long, I’m content with the numbers I ran, cause I would help save the environment, I will get to ride a superior scooter than Petrol one
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For Suzuki access you mentioned on road price while for Ather, you mentioned ex-showroom price. Ather 450x price (₹ 1.6 lakhs) does not include insurance, road tax or registration charges. Based on Ather 450 calculations, Insurance for Ather 450x will be another ~₹ 9,000 in the first year. Each year insurance will be ~₹ 2,000 more than it is for access. Road tax waived off for EVs in Maharashtra but its still there in few states. In your case its nill.
Another important miss in your calculation is, you are paying Rs 70,000 extra (₹ 60,000 for ex-showroom + ₹10,000 for insurance), upfront for 450x over Access. At 6% FD interest, that amounts to ₹4,000+ per year.
So, the actual savings per year will be ₹ 22,000 - ₹7,500 - ₹2,500 (insurance) - ₹4,000 (FD interest) = ₹8,000 per year. That makes it takes more than 7 years to recover the extra cost in your case. For the people, with more usage per month it will come down to 5 to 6 years. For people with less usage, it will be 9 to 10 years.
Ather 450 used to be such a great option for majority and it was better in economic sense as well as it used to take 4 years for even with low usage to get the extra cost back. But with 50% price increase for 450x compared to 450, its never going to be a economic decision but emotional one.
I still wonder if there is a market for premium scooters in the country similar to bikes. Even in bikes only Royal Enfield (and KTM to some extent) proved to be successful. Remember, Ather is not trying to be some exclusive club of elite customers selling 2 to 3K vehicles per month.
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Is the ather insurance issued for 1year or for 5years like you get it for petrol scooters.
The IRDAI had made long-term motor third-party insurance package (three years for four-wheelers and five years for two-wheelers) mandatory from September 1st, 2018. It was applicable for all two-wheelers including Ather 450. But in July this year, it withdrew this with effect from August 1st, 2020 as it was becoming unaffordable for vehicle buyers. So it is not mandatory to buy long-term third-party cover anymore. Only annual third-party coverage is mandatory (Ather 450 or any other two-wheeler for that matter).
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I agree that the final goal of Ather isn’t to just be the club of elite customers. But I think Tarun said it somewhere that the idea of bringing a high cost low volume vehicle as proof of concept and then moving to a low price high volume product is always the right way to start off. And 450X is just a stepping stone in that direction and I think the 450 wasnt exactly the premium product they were looking for that can make them good profits and get them going. Also
I don’t think you took into account the added features and performance. It’s not just about breaking even with the 450X. It’s better to compare the performance with a 150cc scooter like the Aprillia and even with that you won’t be able to match the kind of features that only come in 10+ lakh bikes. But in your case you’ve moved from one segment to a segment higher.
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Are you sure with those numbers? I got a 5 year insurance for 9k for my 450 
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Which insurer is providing 1st party insurance for 5 years at a time. My estimates are based on insurance mentioned on Ather website for 450 which costs 5,778 for 1 year own damage & nill dip and 5 year third party insurance.
Another estimate is from Bike Dekho website for RE Classic 350 which has ex-showroom price of Rs 1.6 lakh (same as 450x) and insurance estimation is Rs ~9000.
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Which insurance company is this from?
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Digit Insurance provided 1y (own damage) + 5y (TPL) for ₹5.5k
Who is the insurance provider…?
Have you seen the new Aprillia 150 series prices? They are upwards of 1.3lakhs. Going above 1.6lakhs also. And the 450X Has better performance than those too. Better features and handles better too.
Only thing missing is ABS. Which imo you don’t really need considering the amazing weight balance and breaks. But still would have been nice to have. @tarun maybe something you guys can bring in with a 450X refresh 2 years down the lane next to your budget scooter.
So comparing those 2 there is no surge upfront cost. We all thought EVs will get cheaper but now, ICE have gotten expensive enough to justify the upfront cost of an EV🤦
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As I mentioned at the end of my post, I don’t think Ather is looking to be a niche player like Piaggio in a huge 2 wheeler market. Piaggio sells around 5,000 vehicles (all Vespas and aprilias combined) per month and has market share of less than 0.5%.
If Ather really wanted to be a premium 2 wheeler company, they should have started with motorcycle instead of scooter. Volume of premium motorcycles (Rs 1.5 lakhs +) is much higher than premium scooters.
Coming few months will be interesting as they reveal if there’s a market for premium electric scooters. Based on initial numbers, it’s definitely not the case.
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No they’re not. But it’s where they want to start off at so that they can still handle the expansion. Motorcycles come with the notion that they can be used for long intercity rides. EVS haven’t yet gotten there. And scooters are more in line with where EVs stand today. Urban intracity mobility.
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Your point on ABS is not convincing ABS is far better breaking system than combi-breaking . My personal experience it saves me .
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Very true. Compared to Aprilia and Vespa, Ather looks like huge value. Would be interesting to see the pricing of Burgman EV next.
Oh no argument there. It is far safer. Yes. But I’ve never been in a situation that I felt the need of an ABS. The weight balance barely allows for the front to lock up.
But isn’t a reason for ABS to not be there.
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