Buying and owning the Ather 450 Plus electric scooter

The scooter is exceptionally well put together. There have been no unwanted creaks and vibrations from any part on both good as well as bad roads.

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Hello everyone! I'm sure I'm a little late to the party with regard to Ather reviews, but I've noticed that there are a plethora of reviews on the Ather 450x, but there are hardly any on the 450 Plus. So I'm here to give you a detailed review on the buying experience, the difference between the two variants, all the nitty gritties about owning an Ather (subscription plans and service etc. etc.) and my experience with owning it for about a month now.

The reason for purchase:

Right, so let me begin with why I chose the Ather. Rewind back to 2021, we decided to transition to EVs because of rising fuel and maintenance costs. We decided to replace our two cars, a 2013 Verna and a 2017 Kwid. Long story short, we replaced the former with an MG ZS and were looking for a replacement for the Kwid. If you'd like to read more about the MG's buying and ownership experience, I'll link it here.

The contenders:

Anyway, coming back to the Ather. Considering that I was the primary user of the Kwid and didn't particularly require a car, I wanted a two-wheeler that was cheap to run and maintain and have a decent amount of useful features. My commute was around 20 -30 kms every other day, and it would rarely exceed 40 - 50 kms. Hence, an EV was definitely in the books. I didn't consider the cheaper offerings because they seemed primarily targeted at the e-commerce segment and didn't really appeal to me. The main contenders were:

The Ather 450x or Ather 450 Plus:

The Ola S1 Pro:

The Revolt RV 400:

The Ultraviolette F77:

(Surprise Entry) The Odysse Evoqis:

I'll keep this part brief; the Revolt didn't appeal too much because of the sub-par build quality, lack of proper service network and the small size for a motorcycle. I really liked the Ultraviolette, but there was no news about its launch, and I needed a replacement ASAP. A friend of mine had just recently purchased the Odysse Evoqis, and It looked from every angle like a Kawasaki Ninja. However, on doing some research, I found that it was just another cheap Chinese motorcycle that multiple small companies (*cough* Kabira Mobility *cough*) imported and claimed was their own. Although it looked so good, the build quality wasn't great, and I dropped the idea of purchasing it. The purchase window for the OLA S1 Pro was due to open only in January, and being a completely new product with no previous ownership reviews made me shy away. A good friend of mine had (and still continues to own) the first-gen Ather 450, and he seemed to love it. So I decided to go check it out. Here's a picture of his Ather 450:

The buying experience:

First, I decided to call up Bengaluru dealerships and inquire about the exact road pricing. I first called up Ather JP Nagar and requested the pricing, and the associate said she would send it immediately, but she never did. Disappointed with this, I decided to call up Ather Indiranagar, who immediately sent me the invoices. We went to Ather Indiranagar to physically check out the scooter.

Ather Indiranagar.

The SA, Mr Akshay, explained everything about both variants and their related costs with great zeal. Definitely pleased with his whole method of handling the process. I'll give you a quick breakdown of both the vehicles. The Ather 450 Plus and the 450x are the same vehicles outside and even hardware-wise. The difference lies in certain features on the software side. Both the vehicles come with the same 2.9 kWh battery pack installed, but a slightly updated software helps the Ather 450x achieve a slightly higher range. The Ather 450x also gets a few additional features, such as BlueTooth support with call and music control, as well as the Warp Mode. Here's a link with the detailed information on the differences between the two.

The on-road price at the time (Including the FAME II Subsidy) was Rs. 1,29,301 for the Ather 450 Plus and Rs. 1,49,000 for the Ather 450x. I didn't need the call and music control, and the Rs. 20,000 premium for the 15km extra range didn't matter to me, so I decided to book the 450 Plus. We booked the 450 Plus at the dealership and paid the whole amount later at home. I chose not to get the Insurance from Digit, Ather's provider and purchased it from HDFC Ergo instead. We were told that due to the semiconductor shortage, it would take up to 45 days to deliver the vehicle, but they managed to deliver it in 30 days. Here are a few pictures from the delivery:

Ownership experience:

Right so it's been a little over two months since delivery, and I'm here to tell you about everything there is to know about owning an Ather. Unfortunately, I've only been able to clock about 60km because of Covid, but I have ridden it over all kinds of road surfaces at low and high speeds, so I'll give you an idea of what that's like.

The scooter and its features:

Firstly, coming to the build quality, absolutely no complaints. The scooter is exceptionally well put together. There have been no unwanted creaks and vibrations from any part on both good as well as bad roads. The ride quality is slightly on the stiffer side, and this does show on bad stretches of roads, but it does provide phenomenal handling dynamics, and it is ridiculously easy to just chuck it into a corner without worrying about it. It is an exceptionally well-balanced scooter and is great for zipping through traffic (The Ather is one of the few vehicles in India with a 50-50 weight balance. Plus the low centre of gravity helps xD). The boot space is more than adequate and fits my full face (Size Large) helmet, a copy of physical documents, the helmet sleeve, a microfibre cloth and a pair of riding gloves. It also has a very nice LED Light, which illuminates the space.

The boot LED light.

The brakes are great, although I do wish that the Ather had ABS because if you do brake really harshly, the rear wheel tends to lock up, but it isn't an issue for the most part. (The Ather has a Bybre Combined Braking System or CBS, which essentially means that when you pull the left brake lever, it activates both the front and rear brakes). The performance is absolutely excellent, it flies upto a speedo indicated 90 kmph on Sport mode. I also love sound that the motor makes (sounds like a spaceship to me).

Now coming to one of Ather's USPs, the dashboard. It is a 7-inch touchscreen system that is based on Android. It is very smooth to use and works well most of the time. It comes with a 4G sim embedded. I'll run you all through it in detail.

This is the main dashboard screen. It displays (from the top left, clockwise):

• The menu shortcut.
• The 4G signal strength.
• The time and any warning message from the sensors (I'll come to this in a bit).
• The navigation shortcut.
• The estimated range on different modes (this adapts based on your riding aggressiveness. (I'll again elaborate on this in a bit).
• The mode on which you are currently riding.
• The speedo.
• The park assist shortcut.

• The odo with the trip information.

The scooter has a plethora of sensors (43 to be exact) that monitor everything from battery temperature, health and charging to even whether the side stand is open. The following two pictures are the sensors indicating that the side stand is open and the kill switch is engaged. The motor will not turn on under these circumstances, and even if it is already on, it will shut off when the side stand is opened.

The navigation is powered by Google Maps and is great for the most part. You can also send the navigation data from the Ather App on your smartphone to the scooter:

The menu has four main sub-menus:

• General, which displays the scooter info such as the VIN Number, Registration etc.
• Settings, where you can adjust screen brightness (I just leave it on Auto), the theme, you can turn off the indicators' sounds and the reversing sound. You can toggle the Auto Indicators, Guide me home lights,
• Realtime Efficiency, and go Incognito, which basically means that the scooter won't track any data.
• Errors, which will display messages if sensors detect a fault in the scooter.
• Documents, where you can store images of your DL, RC and Insurance or any other document you wish to carry.

There is a difference between shutting down and turning off the scooter. Turning off is what you do when using the scooter every other day. Shutting down is when you aren't using the scooter for an extended period. This completely turns off all sensors that normally monitor the battery's health when the vehicle is turned off and the SIM.

The scooter also has a park assist feature wherein the scooter assists you in reversing (limits the speed to 2kmph) and can go forward up to 5kmph. The reverse feature is an absolute boon, and I use it all the time.

The lights:

The lights are great, they are all LED units, and they illuminate the road very well. They also look really good, in my opinion.

Headlight spread.

Charging, ange and running costs:

You have two home options to charge the scooter, the Ather Dot, which is a wall-mounted waterproof charger, and the Portable Charger. They both charge at the same speed, but the Ather Dot is mapped to only your scooter, meaning it cannot charge any other Ather, but this is not the case with the portable charger. I chose the portable charger. It will connect to any 15 amp or 5 amp socket. It takes a little over 5 hours for a 0 - 100 charge, and you can monitor the charging status from the Ather App on your phone. The charger will Auto cut off during voltage fluctuations, and once it reaches 100% so you can leave it overnight without worrying. The charger also locks into place when charging, and you cannot remove it. You also have fast chargers around the city, which you can find via the onboard navigation or the Ather App.

Portable charger.

Charging case.

 The 450 Plus gives pretty much 70 km on a full charge on an average, but the scooter adapts over time, based on your riding aggressiveness as well as via software updates. Because of this, some owners have also been able to get 100+ kms of range.

Ather app dashboard.

Efficient riding.

Aggressive driving.

Coming to ownership costs and a comparison with an ICE ccooter (I've taken the Honda Activa 6G here), I've worked out the cost for 5 years (600 km per month or 7200 km per year). Over the course of five years, the Ather will cost Rs. 11,000 for a total of 36,000 Km whereas an Activa will cost around Rs. 75,000 for the same distance.

Subscription plans - Additional cost (optional):

This is where things get a little dicey, but I'll tell you how to work around it. Ather has a subscription model for both data as well as service. I'll start with data. Ather offers two plans, Connect Lite and Connect Pro.

They include the following:

For service, they have the Service Lite and the Service Pro:

If you absolutely want to get the features that Connect Pro offers (it is free till May 2022 for all users), then you will have to shell out Rs. 700 per quarter. If you're like me and are not too concerned about them and just want navigation and OTA updates, I'd get the Ather Connect Lite. With regard to service, you can purchase either one of the plans (I'd again recommend the Lite plan unless you absolutely cannot take the scooter yourself to the service centre) just before the 5000 km mark, essentially making the service cost only Rs. 800. If you don't want any connect features, you can do that too and use the scooter as a regular scooter.

In conclusion, It's a fantastic scooter, and I absolutely love it and can't wait to go on longer journeys with it. I hope I've helped you make your decision if you are considering one of these vehicles. Cheers!

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