[Mahven]

These scooters were being tested on the outer ring road, Bangalore yesterday. Although I didn't identify them at first, I then got to know they were from Ather Energy.


Looked not so good from behind in real, may be number plate kind of covers would complete that weird looking rear end. But bikes looked good from side and front to the naked eye.


I would have filmed from the front but the rider started to wave his hands not to film. I had to be gentle and stop.

https://youtu.be/fPumO-tuPRI

[Juggy]

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

When I booked the 450, I got an email with my order number. In that email there was this paragraph about account creation invite. I've not got anything in this regard. Has anybody else here who had booked the 450 got any account creation invite?

Finally walked in for a test ride today, having booked earlier (live down the road and have seen plenty of testers). On the email, Hemanth, the account creation will be done after bikes get allotted in Aug and you are assigned a Relationship manager. They are into Jan delivery now, but the public and home charging installations are being finished at a rapid pace.

A lot of the fine points raised here by others helped me look out for show stoppers, but really didn't find any (BTW, Vijay demo'ed the reverse gear change, and you have to move vehicle a bit back, and then slide the Park Assist, and it beeps and clearly shows it is in Reverse. You can also apparently use it for climbing up apartment ramps, which may be why the Forward is not engaged by default and has a speed limiter). It seems unlikely they will do a child lock for something like this.

Two things worry me though. The whine can be really aggravating, (my neighbors complain about the nuisance, but we do get a lot of testers riding here) and more importantly how they plan to use telemetry data.

The obvious use case is to fine tune their GPS maps, (cause their gyros and other sensors help them distinguish potholes or breakers), but they also brought in insurance premiums based on riding behavior. That worries me, as anecdotally many people can share a scooter (and a couple of rides by the 'kids' can wreck your premiums). Maybe I'm just the wrong side of 40, but I hope Ather doesn't get carried away by the volume of telemetry data they collect, and continue to use it responsibly.

My highlight was seeing a middle aged Jap customer and his younger colleague take pictures and appreciate the thoughtful design of the bike. I have bought a few vehicles in my time, and I think this will rank as my best sales experience yet.

Kudos to the Ather team, and if you are sitting on the fence, please do drop by. Chennai may be next March, with couple more South cities next year.

[sri_tesla]

Originally Posted by Juggy

Kudos to the Ather team, and if you are sitting on the fence, please do drop by. Chennai may be next March, with couple more South cities next year.

I really hope they consider Hyderabad for release along with Chennai. I will replace my bike with Ather 450 as soon as they release it in Hyderabad.

[hrman]

Originally Posted by Mahven

These scooters were being tested on the outer ring road, Bangalore yesterday.

Headlights seem pretty ok for me from this video. This was one of the concerns many of us had raised, considering it is an LED

[fordday]

Originally Posted by Juggy

Two things worry me though. The whine can be really aggravating, (my neighbors complain about the nuisance, but we do get a lot of testers riding here) and

Are you serious? Can that whine be a nuisance? Is it louder than average noise from IC vehicles?

I could not figure it out.

[Juggy]

Originally Posted by fordday

Are you serious? Can that whine be a nuisance? Is it louder than average noise from IC vehicles?

I could not figure it out.

Maybe you need to watch a couple of them on the road, instead of riding it, as sharp acceleration seems to accentuate it. Like I mentioned we live down the lane and a lot of test miles accelerate at the slope.

The AutoCAR review (

https://youtu.be/O7AqcRNOefQ

) observes this, look around the 12:15 mark. There is also a clear hum from the cooling fans at lower speeds, which can get quite disconcerting.

Again, your mileage may vary. I just mention it as nobody complains about the couple of E2Os in our building.

On a related note, the sales guy mentioned the booking ratio of prototype 340s to 450s was like 4 to 96. Their Arai figures for the 450 was 107km on a single charge and by Dec they plan to get 60+ Ather points on the grid. Refreshing to see such motivation to make electric accepted.

[hemanth.anand]

I got a mail from Ather a few minutes ago with a subject Pre-order done. What next?
It is mostly an email to answer some common question people had. Quoting the email below

Hello ,

Once again, congratulations on pre-ordering your Ather 450 and a warm thank you for your enthusiasm.
It’s been an exciting 6 weeks since the launch. Deliveries till January 2019 are booked out already. We have completed over 1600 test-rides as of today, with plenty more scheduled in the coming days. And everyone seems to be loving their 450 ride
(In case you're yet to take your test-ride, walk-in to AtherSpace at a convenient time and our product specialists will get you one)

What about…?

Throughout all our customer interactions across email, AtherSpace, and social media, we have captured the most frequently asked questions - ranging from battery warranty to AtherOne subscription. You can find all these answers soon in the upcoming FAQ section on our website.

Most of you absolutely loved riding the 450 and some of you have also shared feedback about certain aspects of the test-ride, some of which were already known to us. While some of these issues will be corrected before final production, we won't be able to address the others owing to timeline constraints or design calls we've taken.

These are the top comments we got as feedback from over 1600 test-rides:

1. The switches could be better: We agree and the team is already working to improve them in production vehicles.
2. Plastics around the dashboard do not match the rest of the vehicle: Yes, and we're working on fixing this for production vehicles.
3. Rear-view mirrors are difficult to adjust:The mirrors were too stiff to be adjusted on the AtherSpace test-ride scooters. This has been fixed now.
4. Headlights are not bright enough: We've increased the luminosity of the lights for production vehicles.
5. Sidestep for sitting sideways is missing: Unfortunately, we won't be able to add a sidestep to the vehicle at this stage, nor can we make it available as a fit-in accessory.
6. Difficult to know if the scooter is on: We're improving the UI of the dashboard in a few days to address this.
7. No brake lock: We're figuring out ways to implement this. However, this won't be part of the current version.
8. No USB port: We went back and forth on this decision. We thought that the USB port would come in handy when your phone battery drains from using navigation, and since the Ather 450/340 have navigation onboard, we've decided against the USB port in our design.
9. No center stand: This was a fairly early design decision we had taken that using a center stand is not a great experience, especially with a robust side stand design, the use of center stand is very limited. Hence it won’t make an appearance on the Ather 450/340.

Your Ather account...
...is being developed. This will be a one-stop account for all your interactions with Ather - before and after taking ownership of the 340. The second phase of our website with the login account would go live by July end. That’s what this guy has promised…



This is Sikka, the owner of all Business Tools that get built at Ather.

Your Home Charger...
...installation audits have started happening. We’ve conducted 120 audits at customers’ locations. They will continue to happen for the customers who have pre-ordered, based on their pre-order number. Installation of the charging socket at home will happen before your Ather 450 gets delivered.

Full payment

You will get an update mail 45 days before your scooter’s delivery date about the process to complete your order. We want to make the ownership of the 450 a lot easier with our financing options. You already know about the automotive loan option that's on offer. Additionally, we are also exploring a lease option. More on this in the coming days.

An Ather Forum

Our interactions with you and a thousand others are scattered across multiple channels. Most queries have been responded to, but it’s highly likely that you haven’t come across them. Also, the last thing we want to do is put out a canned response saying “Thank you for your query. We will get back to you in the next 48 hours.” What matters to both of us is real and meaningful conversations. And most importantly, our owners getting the priority in response. This triggered the idea of having an open platform between you and us where you and other owners can share feedback, ideas and get the latest product updates. And hence we are building a forum, which you should get access to by July end.

Makes sense? Till then, feel free to write back with all your queries and we will get revert right away

Thanks,
Team Ather

Good that they've answered many questions and taking the feedback seriously.

[avanishphatak]

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

I got a mail from Ather a few minutes ago with a subject Pre-order done. What next?
It is mostly an email to answer some common question people had. Quoting the email below

Good that they've answered many questions and taking the feedback seriously.

Sidestep for sitting sideways is missing: Unfortunately, we won't be able to add a sidestep to the vehicle at this stage, nor can we make it available as a fit-in accessory.
This will completely put off women who wear sarees as pillion riders.


No brake lock: We're figuring out ways to implement this. However, this won't be part of the current version.
C'mon. 1980's kinetic honda had this

No USB port: We went back and forth on this decision. We thought that the USB port would come in handy when your phone battery drains from using navigation, and since the Ather 450/340 have navigation onboard, we've decided against the USB port in our design.
So they make a futuristic bike, with KWHs of energy in the battery, and sell it for 1,25,000INR and assume people use cellfones only for navigation. How dumb. There are people who run out of charge over a busy day and put the phones under the seat to charge it. Now hope they dont go telling everyone to keep a battery-pack under the seat slots.

No center stand: This was a fairly early design decision we had taken that using a center stand is not a great experience, especially with a robust side stand design, the use of center stand is very limited. Hence it won’t make an appearance on the Ather 450/340.
Space taken by a bike on centre stand is least. In our choc-a-block parking, centre stand is a boon. and it does not get your bike locked in between two bikes. Slope + sidestand + no-brakelock is a disaster.

Not every feature-miss is a design-decision. Maybe they should ride a bike like a normal person and get the real-life issues. We see how TVS Jupiter really solved so many issues issues that people saw in Activa.
I agree this is a premium bike, but thats not a reason to leave out useful stuff.

[hemanth.anand]

Over the weekend, I got the Forum Invite to Ather community and my account was created with the help of which any updates regarding my order can be seen. The dashboard of the account has all the details available for my order.



The first batch of scooter were supposed to be delivered starting from August till October. I think it has still not started.

[Juggy]

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

The first batch of scooter were supposed to be delivered starting from August till October. I think it has still not started.

In the forum, a Mod Shreyas clarified that deliveries would commence mid to late Aug, and they would explore linking Order IDs with their prod schedules, and maybe displaying on the dashboard. It is encouraging that they are even thinking along these lines.

Hemanth, did your home kit installation complete uneventfully or are you waiting?

[hemanth.anand]

Originally Posted by Juggy

In the forum, a Mod Shreyas clarified that deliveries would commence mid to late Aug, and they would explore linking Order IDs with their prod schedules, and maybe displaying on the dashboard. It is encouraging that they are even thinking along these lines.

His reply was in fact as as answer to my question there

Hemanth, did your home kit installation complete uneventfully or are you waiting?

The installation hasn't happened yet. As you can see from the screenshot from my previous post.

[TusharK]

Ather scooter deliveries to begin on September 10, 2018

Ather Energy is gearing up to start deliveries of its electric scooters on September 10, 2018.



The Bangalore-based start-up had announced the launch of the Ather 340 and Ather 450 in June 2018. The two models are priced at Rs. 1.10 lakh and Rs. 1.25 lakh (on-road, Bangalore), respectively.

The e-scooters are based on a hybrid chassis and are finished in dual-tone bodywork with green accents. They come equipped with a 7.0-inch touchscreen instrument panel, LED lights and Parking Assist with a reverse mode.

The e-scooters are powered by a Brushless DC electric motor (BLDC). The Ather 340 has an output of 6 BHP and 20 Nm and comes with a 1.92 kWh lithium-ion battery, while the 450 variant makes 7.2 BHP and 20.5 Nm and derives its power from a 2.4 kWh lithium-ion battery. The maximum range of the two scooters is claimed to be 86 km and 107 km respectively.

The braking setup consists of a 200 mm disc brake at the front and a 190 mm disc brake at the rear. The scooters also get a combined braking system and regenerative braking.

Link to Team-BHP News

[hemanth.anand]

Originally Posted by TusharK

Ather scooter deliveries to begin on September 10, 2018

Ather Energy is gearing up to start deliveries of its electric scooters on September 10, 2018.[/b]

Saw this post yesterday; was surprised that this information was not to be seen anywhere else. Then Logged into the Ather forum to check if I have some messages there...Negative.
Today, I saw there that someone has asked the same question and the Ather team has replied to it


Confirmation of first delivery

In other news, the Ather App is now on Android Playstore, although I'm not able to login to it yet.
Earlier, apart from the Ather team, this app was only made available to media during the launch and media drives.

[hemanth.anand]

Ather first delivery postponed to 11th because of a Bharath Bandh tomorrow.

[sri_tesla]

First 10 customers are receiving their vehicles today. Ather CEO, Tarun Mehta posted few pictures on twitter (vehicles, customers and factory). This is a great achievement by an Indian startup. Hope they are very successful and expand to entire country soon.

https://twitter.com/tarunsmehta/stat...22935533006848