How this subscription plan will be useful for the one who lives or going to use the vehicle on non ather cities? Why everyone supposed to pay for the battery either as upfront payment or as subscription plan when they can’t use fast charging or swapping batteries on non Ather cities
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First of all, people purchasing an Ather outside the cities where it is present do so at their own risk. It is a conscious decision that they will be missing out on support (RSA, Service) and facilities (public grid). It is a calculated risk that they take so that they can own a product that they’ve liked and is based on the confidence they place on it. They take this decision fully aware of the fact that in case of regular services and breakdown, they’ve get the scooter to the closest serviceable city at their own expense.
Ather as a company doesn’t recommend owning their scooter outside the cities they are present in. That’s how Ather’s subscription plans that include free public charging are designed. But they can’t stop anyone from taking it to other cities either. Those people who wish to take it outside the serviceable cities can take subscription plans that include only connected services as that is all OTA.
As far as Battery subscription plan is concerned, if people owning it outside the serviceable cities take the 450plus or 450x on subscription, it’s up to them to get it to any one of the serviceable cities to get their degraded batteries replaced. Actually for such people buying the scooter upfront with Ather connect kind of subscription plan is better in my opinion. That’ll mean they’ve to get the scooter to the closest serviceable city only for the regular 5K interval services or a breakdown.
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Did u include the battery residual costs while exiting?
I did not consider exit option prices as they are not announced yet. I considered staying in subscription upto 10 years
Why don’t you change the service interval from 5000kms to 10000kms
Because 5000kms is Ather’s recommended service interval for the scooter. I just can’t change to whatever I want, can I?
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Bajaj service interval is 10,000 kms double the Ather . Bajaj haven’t tested the vehicle @ consumer level at …So I was expecting from Ather to be more than 10,000 kms not 5,000 kms sorry if my hopes are too high for Ather
Have you compared that with TVS iQube?
Assuming that the battery will be replaced once every 5 five years, is not correct here. It’s easier said than done, considering the fact that we are seeing varying range in the current 450 owners.
Do the math around when you expect the battery performance to drop below the claimed True Range [68 Km for 450X and 56 Km for 450 Plus in case of subscription]. Then, once can arrive at the conclusion whether he will be benefiting with the subscription or one might end up paying over and above the actual battery cost with battery getting replaced.
This brings an interesting question, what will be the subscription price after the lock-in period of 4 years? In the 4 years, Ather would have already recovered the battery cost with interest rate and some more towards the warranty, Ather Connect charges.
In the case of Plus, I wonder when the battery performance will drop below 56 Km, with Ather having the option to increase the performance just with a software update.
So, in my opinion, if one gets into this subscription plan, with the idea that the battery will be replaced in 5 years, it will not work out.
To conclude, go for the subscription, thinking that you are making a down-payment of 99k and paying regular EMI for 4 years. Evaluate at the end of 4 years, if you want to continue with the subscription depending on the Battery replacement cost and subscription price.
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That’s exactly why I have also given details for just 1 battery replacement in 10 years also. The math I considered for the battery replacement is the following factors:
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Ather’s standard 3 years warranty (So I had to assume replacement costs after 3 years)
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Lithium ion batteries degrade in 2 ways :
a) Usage( No of charge cycles)
b) Calendar aging( based on the age of the battery)
A lithium ion batteries will have good performance upto 500 - 1000 charge cycles after which the performance will degrade badly.
Each charge cycle for an ather 450 gives around 75km and for ather 450x 85km.
So the battery may last anywhere between 35000 km to 70000km before performance drop.
So I considered an average person 5000 km to 10000 km per year.
For a person who drives less they can probably get away with only 1 battery replacement in 10 years and a person who drives more probably will need 2 replacements over 10 years.
Considering all these factors I assumed the number of battery replacements in 10 years as 1 or 2 replacements.
Don’t worry I have done a fair deal of math and research on when and how the battery may degrade 
As for the new plans announced they were for the 450x model not the 450 plus. But I totally agree that ather can unlock more range in 450 plus as the capacity is electronically limited by software. 450 plus battery subscription in my opinion is a very bad deal.
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Can you please share the spreadsheet here, so that we can add other comparisons?
@sumanth1998 Agreed you have done quite a lot of math there 
But, considering that the subscriptions are not yet revised and Ather seems to be coming up with the different ways of showcasing the same pricing, discussion on other options are futile.
Also, you have missed out on adding the insurance cost and road tax. Numbers don’t look good when those things are added.
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Sure I would… But I don’t know how to share a spreadsheet here… 
@abhishek.balaji, So was this feedback helpful for Ather. What is the outcome of this feedback? Is there a remote chance that we can get a Revolt style Pricing ( MRP ), MAP ( EMI for the vehicle + EMI for the battery + Ather Service/Charging charge )…
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People who think that Subscription price doesn’t matter go back to the spreadsheet created by Sumanth. If you go through clearly you will find out where it matters. Current subscription is not well thought or Ather went too greedy. I hope it’s the latter and they come up with a better subscription option, which strikes a balance in providing value to customer and better margins to Ather.
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@amithrai13, but that is not finalized. It was just a thought. Nothing is finalized yet. I am also eagerly waiting for that confirmation from @Ather.Team
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Agree with you there. But, Ather is known to be a very customer oriented company, which I like about. Hope they will figure out something.
They’re a startup, independent of being a customer oriented company they need money to survive just like others. They can’t go pricing everything aggressively to please customers cause if they do so they’ll need to file for bankruptcy in a couple of years. The first couple of products are bound to be pricy for them to make a firm foundation after which factors such as better battery density, subsidies for the company itself and 100% made in India components would get things much cheaper. Until then the first generation endorsers have to pay the price :).
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… For love of Ather. 
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@sunku.vignesh Agree with you on that. 450 and 450x have got high end components and technology. It is bound to be pricier than the other scooters in the Indian market.
But, there are some intricate details in their subscription, which many have not understood I believe, which was what we are discussion here. To put it in simple terms, being pricier is one thing and totally worthless is another. Go through the chart created by @sumanth1998 you will get it.
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