Sorry for long post. For others who don’t want to read full, a 3 line summary:
I tested my 46 month old Gen-1 by riding 85.3 km with 4% charge left.
The range prediction below 30% is not reliable.
Forced Eco mode < 18% will penalise you.
Now, for others who have patience:
Today, I had a need to drive 81 kms on a single charge. Two years back, I would have done that with more confidence.
But, on an almost 4 years old Gen 1, I wasn’t sure of battery health. From 100-50, I am confident of getting 40+ kms range with efficient driving. But, I am always skeptical about range prediction below 30%.
After 60 kms I gave up the idea because of range anxiety and rural roads where I could hardly see any home / shop, leave alone place for charging. So, I asked the person to come and handover at that point.
Now that, I already finished the job, I thought this is right time for me to test how much range I get in full battery. So, I continued the ride until 23% charge and started returning.
I covered 70 kms with 23% charge left. Now, I had to cover 11 kms in remaining 23%. On paper, it is very much doable. But, 2 problems
The charge drop is much faster below 30%.
At 18%, you will be forced to Eco mode, which will remove any chance of momentum in the up-hill or down-hill.
With a Luna like driving for final 5-6 kms, I had reached home completing 85.3 km with 4% charge left. If I had continued until 0%, I might have completed 87 km.
Summary:
80+ km range for a 4 year old vehicle is impressive.
Compared to what I have achieved in my first 1-2 years, I think my battery health might be at 85-90% now.
Because, Ather says even 20-80 doesn’t offer significant improvement in battery health. Considering that, any other variations is only going to add more effort on charging habit without much benefit.
I use optimal charging to keep the upper limit at 80%. I commute 25 km one way (in sport mode, below xx kmph only ) so not much to be done about the lower limit. I usually end the day about ~25% and charge daily.
I’ve also read that time is a big enemy too.
So I am going to rely on following the good practices and Ather protect and ride the bike. 50 to 80% once a week would barely get me to work ! with option 2) I could manage two days
Ride stats should start updating in a day or two more. Keep riding till then. If you don’t see ride stats after 2 days then contact on info@atherenergy.com or raise a ticket through the Ather app about this issue.
It’ll take how much time they will take to process your delivery status to be updated on their website. I faced it, check first in their website for you order marked as delivered.
Exactly after 1 week of using the vehicle, stats started showing up correctly for me. I completed 1 week on Thursday and that’s when it started showing up all the details. Just hold on for a week…
