It feels really betrayed when my Gen 3 450x isn’t even a year old and it already feels so outdated I can’t imagine what gen 3.1 owners feels as Ather keeps selling them till November knowing that this new switch gear is coming and the possibilites it brings even though not mentioned in Warpthrough but extra set of buttons can do alot.
Many people spent 1.6-1.8 Lakhs hoping that the scooter evolves over updates for couple years on existing hardware but yall keep introducing new one every 6 months which makes hard to recommend a Ather to anyone at any time or be recurring customer.
I request Ather to make this new dashboard/switchgear retro fit till Gen 3 as purchasable upgrade (3k-5k Rs hopefully) as many users have spare money for their 450x once they recieve charger refund.
Don’t worry Ather Lab Rats who tested new experimental features thinking it will come for gen 3 get ready to be disappointed. Most of the features in the future will be focused based on switchgear
New switch gear might not be compatible, if it was it will be way too expensive, switch gear means new wiring harness, new VCU(vehicle Control unit) and it already have new motor control for upcoming Coasting Regen. If this all needs changing it’s going to be way too expensive.
New switch gear just seems extra set of buttons I don’t think it will require new VCU as most of its functions are for ease of dashboard usage not controling motor like throttle.Other features from remaining hardware can be seprated like gen 2 and 3 have different regen power and auto hill hold
Even if the VCU and Motor controller remains the same, the harness, rear shroud , new switch gears, software, and some internal brakets might needs replacing, with my experience Ather will never change those. So getting new switches will be out of scope.
I own a 450x too. I think we need to start digesting the fact that bikes are more or like becoming a software. Release new version every year and previous versions get outdated in 2 yrs and the support for old will be getting lean in 2 years and we will be compelled to go for a new one.
Also Gen 3 and 3.1 are the same vehicles underneath, except for some minor changes (like the seat and colors) and cost cutting (rusting of the rear shock, panel gaps in earlier batches)
It’s also evidenced by the Ather app showing Gen 3.1 scooter for Gen 3 users.
Basically for Gen 3.1, they did a minor refresh of a ‘perfect’ model, but after 6 months realised they were falling back in terms of features, and instead of figuring out a smart software trick to support their users (like the button combinations for Reverse in current models), they resorted to the easier solution of
“**** older owners, let’s bring a new variant itself! Let’s give up on the R&D of older models, they shouldn’t expect new things in this era of software anyways!”
With all due respect it’s a vehicle not some cellphone or video game. People have been buying and will continue to buy vehicles with the expectation of using them between 5 to 10 years. What people here are asking is for the company to merely stick to the promises and statements that they themselves made.
Also taking away features which the vehicle came with at the time of sale is a very dubious thing to do.
