Ather Energy, an electric vehicle maker based in Bengaluru was not really well known in other parts of the country until recently. The reason for the new-found fame is the ‘450X’ electric scooter that the firm has now launched in New Delhi. With this launch, the company will soon be expanding its presence to other regions of the country too.
Here is a brief for those unaware of the firm. A duo of IIT alumnus came up with the idea of creating their own battery for EVs back in 2013. The goal at the time was to offer more efficiency on the battery than what was being promised by other players in the market. They, however, soon realised that none of the OEMs in the country might be interested in the stand-alone battery. So to put it to use, the duo eventually expanded to a team to produce their own electric scooter in the country.
Years on and Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain can now be seen enjoying the limelight as another of their products hits the market. Second in chronology, the Ather 450X comes as an upgrade to the existing Ather 450 electric scooter that has been retailing in Bengaluru and Chennai for a long time now.
While the 450 was an impressive product in itself, Ather team promises to have amped up the offerings with the 450X. In the process, the new electric scooter is not just better than its predecessor, it is being deemed as the best electric scooter in the Indian market at present. How? Let us have a look here.
Ather found an interesting solution to enable a better battery capacity within the same size. Instead of 18650 lithium-ion battery cells, the company decided to shift to 21700, the same number used by Tesla for its battery packs. As a result, the company was able to achieve a better energy density, thermal management as well as usable power within the same battery packaging.
This decision worked out for Ather in more than one way. In addition to an increased efficiency, the company was able to fit the new 2.9 kWh battery pack within the existing chassis without having to make any changes. That might also be a part reason for the resemblance of the 450 and the 450X.
There are two more battery specifics that the firm worked upon. It came up with an entirely new Battery Management System for the newly added performance. In addition, it managed to increase the fast charging rate by around 50 percent, i.e. from 1 km per minute to 1.45 km per minute, an important feature with the larger battery than before. Ather also claims that this rate is the fastest in the industry to date.All said and done, the new 450X comes with an enhanced range, promising to go 10 extra kilometers than the 450 on a single charge. At 85 km, this is one of the best ranges offered on an electric scooter. However, it is slightly less than that promised by Bajaj Chetak - 95 km.
This is one of the key areas where Ather 450X really distinguishes itself from its competitors. With a new 6kW Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (PMSM), the electric scooter promises an acceleration of 0 to 40 kmph in 3.29 seconds. This, again, is an industry leading number.
The improved acceleration is thanks to the increased torque and power output by the new motor. The number stands at 26 Nm of torque, enough to make the 450X the quickest electric scooter in race at present.
Electric scooters usually limit themselves to a maximum of three ride modes. That was also the case with the 450. With the 450X, Ather has been able to embed a fourth riding mode named ‘Warp mode’ for peak performance. The quickest acceleration of the scooter is a result of this new mode.
Ather 450 sports a touchscreen dashboard for navigation and other connectivity features. The 450X now improves on that with 4G SIM card, Wi-Fi as well as Bluetooth connectivity. This means that the 450X riders can now manage phone calls and music right on the touchscreen dashboard.
The instrument cluster in itself has been updated too. Ather 450X now uses a Android Open Source as an operating system to offer map navigation, On-board diagnostics, Over-the-air updates, Auto Indicator off, Guide-me-home lights and more. All this is powered by a Snapdragon Quad Core processor at the heart.
In addition to the features on the dashboard, the Ather mobile app offers several perks too. Riders can choose to see personalised ride statistics, charging status, push navigation, theft & tow detection, live location & vehicle state tracking, voice assistant, welcome lights and more. With all this connectivity, Ather 450X will also support connected accessories like smart helmets and tyre pressure monitoring systems (TPMS).
To think of it, not many electric scooters in the market have a lot of these features on offer. While many do come with integrated apps and informative instrument clusters, the list of activities that can be performed on those is usually quite limited.
Keeping these perks in mind, Ather 450X seems to be the best choice for an electric scooter buyer in India right now. Then again, to confer that, we will have to pitch it against the recent launches by major OEMs in the segment. So here is a comparison of the 450X with the Bajaj Chetak and TVS iQube as per the specifications of the three electric scooters.