[bugatti]

https://www.techradar.com/in/news/ho...ectric-vehicle

According to the ride data acquired by Ather, a 90% range is the sweet spot for riders to ensure battery longevity without taking a big toll on the battery life. Technically speaking, an 80% range by limiting the battery from 10% to 90% would yield the battery conditions (almost a 5x improvement over 0 to 100%), but the range reduction would be too big for most riders. But that could theoretically be an option in the future.

Am I interpreting this correctly?
-Would battery life go up 5x if charging is limited within that range?
-What would be the range reduction?

Can any owner confirm this with Ather?

[hemanth.anand]

Originally Posted by bugatti

Am I interpreting this correctly?
-Would battery life go up 5x if charging is limited within that range?

Not in terms of time (days or years), but in terms of charging cycles.

This percentage amount that they are talking about is the Depth of Discharge or DoD. Currently Ather's battery is actually 2.7kwh but the usable capacity is only 2.4kwh. DoD is hence 88.8% (approximated to 90%). If you limit the battery between 10-90%, the DoD will be 80%.
The 'cyclic life' of a battery or the number of charge/discharge cycles depends on how much of its capacity we can normally use. If we regularly discharge the batteries at a lower percentage amount(or DoD), it will have more useful cycles than if you frequently drain the battery to its maximum DoD.
For example, a battery may have around 3000 cycles at 80% DoD but 15000 cycles at a DoD of 60%

If Ather's battery has a cyclic life of 'x' at 100% DoD (or 2.7kwh), it has now got '>2x' charging cycles because they've limited it to 90% DoD. If it is limited to 80% DoD, cyclic life will increase by '5x'.

-What would be the range reduction?

Can any owner confirm this with Ather?

with DoD of 80%, the usable battery capacity will be around 2.15kwh.
The Range will correspondingly reduce to 58kms in Ride mode (from 65kms now) and 49kms in Sports mode (from 55kms now).
This may lead to Range anxiety. But based on data already available that most Ather owners don't ride for more than 20Kms a day, Ather may possibly limit the DoD to 80% in future to improve longevity. For Chennai this is 27kms/day

[hemanth.anand]

Ather had launched the Dot charger in August. (More on that here).
Since this removed the AC-DC converter out of the vehicle, the new portable charger had to make this AC-DC conversion and hence it has become bigger.

Ather recently came up with a new initiative where they've given Portable chargers to Moderators and selected users in both cities. I'm one among those "hosts". Users can request for these on the Forum and borrow it for a few days incase they are planning a long ride for example. This will be free of cost for the users and they'll have to return it back by that time. This is the bigger portable version 2.0 as it has to work with all Athers.

Since I had this Community Portable Charger with me, Yesterday evening I did a quick side-by-side comparison with my own portable charger (version 1.0) which I had purchased along with my scooter.

Charger adapter dimensions: Length X Breadth X Height
Version 1.0: 6.50 x 2.50 x 1.50 in
Version 2.0: 8.25 x 4.25 x 3.25 in

Charger Weight:
Version 1.0: 0.500kgs
Version 2.0: 2.500kgs

Cable Length from adapter to power plug
Version 1.0: 0.67 ft (8 in)
Version 2.0: 6.50 ft

Cable Length from adapter to vehicle side plug
Version 1.0: 6.50 ft
Version 2.0: 4.00 ft


The package
V2.0 comes with a case made with felt like material. The V1.0 came in a small pullstring clothbag


Inside the case
Inside the bag, the V1.0 came in a ESD safe cover.


After all the covers and ties are removed


The Adapters
The size perspective


That’s a green sticker on the V2.0 by the way (not a light)


Basic Specs
DC and AC


Power plugs
15A and 5A


Some warnings and instructions


Vehicle side plug


Notice the differences in pin configurations


Version 1.0 with my half face helmet in the boot
I also have space to keep a rain coat, a cloth jacket, a small mask in this (not in picture). One can replace this helmet with a full face one too.


Version 2.0 in the boot


No space for anything else!
Version 2.0 with my half face helmet just about fits in the boot. Forget a full face helmet.


Summary

Version1.0
Plus

• Small and portable
• 5A plug-can charge almost everywhere
• Lightweight

Minus

• Sensitive to grounding issues
• Doesn’t work with new 450
• Short cable length

Version 2.0
Plus

• Sufficiently long cables
• Low grounding issues
• Scooter is now lighter
• Works with older 450 too

Minus

• Big and not really "portable"
• Heavy
• Cannot wake up older 450 from 0% SOC
• 15A plug-not easy to find everywhere

[wheelguy]

Ather 450 electric scooter gets a new OTA update.

Ather 450 electric scooter has recently received the 4.1.0 OTA update that comes with two new features and multiple enhancements.

The latest OTA update primarily targets at an improved touchscreen and navigation experience. The update brings along two new features and multiple enhancements.

Speaking of the new features first, the 4.1.0 OTA update now comes with a 'Drop Pin' function with the help of which the users can navigate to a location that is not listed on Google Maps by dropping a pin on it.

Another new feature is the automatic re-routing and as the name suggests, if the rider goes off the route, the said will be detected and rerouted automatically. Now, there will not be a pop up that earlier required the user to reject or accept the same.

Source: Financial Express

[vvijay]

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

Ather had launched the Dot charger in August. (More on that here).

Nice informative post Hemanth . Can you please fix the above link please? It redirects to the main forum webpage only.

Cheers,
Vijay

[hemanth.anand]

On December 1st 2019, when Ather signed MoU with the Govt. of TN, they had announced that by 2020, They'd expand to 30 cities. in continuation to that, Ather has recently uploaded the below video (I converted to gif for easy upload) on all their social media accounts. We can possibly guess some of those cities/states by this video


Coming in 2020

Someone commented why there is no Telugu in this video. Pretty soon Ather changed their profile picture on Facebook to the below image.


Telugu

Although the Telugu word is mis-spelt, it is a probably a message that Andhra Pradesh or Hyderabad will be the immediate next followed by other states shown in the video.

Also in their twitter handle, Ather has started many hashtags #Atherin'city' (#Atherinhyd #atherindelhi #atherinmumbai for example). By these hastags, I could guess 16 cities that might possibly see these scooters plying on their roads. In alphabetical order...Bangalore, Baroda, Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Goa, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Mysore, Navi Mumbai, Pune.

Good to see them ramp up and not lose their headstart. Especially since Chetak is now coming out soon, any delay would cost them badly I feel. But one thing is for sure...all these scooters have to come from the new factory at Hosur as the plant at Bangalore just doesn't have such a huge capacity.

[guru_max]

I am not sure if anyone has the sales numbers but I am surprised to see a few ather vehicles in Chennai. I thought people living near the place where the charging stations are set up by ather would buy this vehicle. But I see them in suburbs as well. I guess for many people a single charge would be equivalent to 2-3 days of office commute.

[hemanth.anand]

Originally Posted by guru_max

I thought people living near the place where the charging stations are set up by ather would buy this vehicle. But I see them in suburbs as well. I guess for many people a single charge would be equivalent to 2-3 days of office commute.

Actually, it's nothing more than misplaced anxiety that you'll need more charging stations (for a city vehicle like the 450). The public charging stations are not necessary at all if your daily usage is less than 75kms. In my 7000+Kms ownership of the 450, I've used the Athergrid only 2 times and that too just to experience it. My usage is 55kms a day.

And regards to Chennai, they have the Ather Dot home charger. That and the portable charger are similar in size and similar charging times, many people have taken the portable charger instead of home charger. I've seen many people in Auroville having Athers!

[subhro1988]

Today, I took a test drive of Ather 450 in Mumbai, for work related purpose. The 2 Ather 450s were brought in by Ather company officials. It had KA registered green number plates.

Some key observations from my end -
1) The ride quality was good and felt no difference compared to an Activa.
2) The reverse gear is extremely useful; once an user uses it does one realize how useful this feature is
3) The horn is LOUD; few pedestrians actually got startled
4) The side stand is unique and well thought out
5) In ECO mode, I barely touched 50kmph, but in Sport mode, touched 72kmph
6) Its impossible to understand whether it is running or not; only while the scooter crosses 20kmph there is a "hummmm" sound.
7) A pillion rider decreases the range by 5-7%

Other key points discussed with Ather officials: The Ather 450x will be launched pan India shortly. They are exploring the dealership model now. They are receiving lots of request for dealerships.

Overall looked like a very promising start-up to me.

[landcruiser123]

I'd say electric scooters make a lot of sense in India if you can get a reliable charging point. Some analysis put forward from my friend:
https://twitter.com/nitinm95/status/...776935424?s=08
Please follow the full thread for the info. Accounting for regular wear and tear & no accidents, should the depreciation for an EV should be measured by effective life of battery?

[hemanth.anand]

Ather has announced today that four more cities are on their confirmed list. This means that deliveries of the 450X will start in 10 cities starting from Q3 2020.


Tamilnadu will get it's second city and Ather will debut in Maharashtra with 2 cities

[sri_tesla]

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

Ather has announced today that four more cities are on their confirmed list. This means that deliveries of the 450X will start in 10 cities starting from Q3 2020.
Attachment 1971665

Tamilnadu will get it's second city and Ather will debut in Maharashtra with 2 cities

Nice to see them expanding to more cities quickly. I wonder if it is due to higher cancellations of pre-orders after 450X pricing debacle.

I wish Bajaj and TVS also expand to more cities in parallel instead of just 1 or 2. With their dealer network already in place, they can easily start with 5-6 major cities across the country. Tata is doing a commendable job with Nexon EV by starting sales in 30+ cities covering almost the entire country.

[Shai100]

Hi Guys,


I was having a peculiar Issue with my ATHER, When the bike is moving the motor suddenly cutoff and the bike comes to dead stop. This is super dangerous as mostly my father in-law drives and he faced it on a busy road, he was almost rear ended couple of times because of this issue.



We had contacted Ather immidiately they took it 2wice and returned giving the reason that software needed an update, inspite of that it did not resolve and now they took it for a month almost and returned saying defective harness is changed. This has totally shattered my confidence in the scooter. I am worried even after this will the issue repeat? I have to mention all these issues am talking have happened in 3 months of purchase, practically a new bike.



Any one else faced this?

[hemanth.anand]

Originally Posted by Shai100

Hi Guys,
I was having a peculiar Issue with my ATHER, When the bike is moving the motor suddenly cutoff and the bike comes to dead stop. This is super dangerous as mostly my father in-law drives and he faced it on a busy road, he was almost rear ended couple of times because of this issue.

Quite some owners have reported this issue. From what I've seen and read, this issue is in scooters which came with the newer Dot charger. Owners of the earlier scooters like mine which came with the Pod charger have not reported this issue. With the dot, the on board AC-DC converter was removed from the scooter. That's when the cable harnesses would've changed.

The issue is basically the cable harness is giving wrong information to the system that the motor temperature is very high (while in real it is not). The codes you see will be M017 and M019. Error code M017 is high motor temperature and error code M019 is for a sensor error. The scooter enters low power mode (aka limp home mode) when this error code is detected.

By design, when the scooter enters low power mode, the error must be displayed and performance must degrade in two steps of 60 seconds each, giving time for the rider to pull over safely. I haven't experienced this (touch wood) and hence I don't know if that is how it is happening in reality.

Previously, after OTA update to 4.1.1, some scooters were getting bricked. They stopped the deployment of 4.1.1 midway and released a patch update (4.1.2) to solve that issue. After that, the affected scooters would go into low power mode instead of getting bricked(one step better but not a solution definitely).

Recently, around 2-3 weeks ago, they've replaced the wiring harness for affected scooters under warranty. Also they've recently released OTA updates 4.1.3, 4.1.4 and 4.1.5 in batches for affected scooters and scooters that may possibly get affected. After this, it has supposedly solved the issue as per updates from some affected users. My scooter which doesn't have this issue is still running without issues with the same wiring harness and the software version 4.1.2 (I never got 4.1.1). So, make sure you get the wiring harness replaced (which you've done already) and you have the latest versions 4.1.3. 4.1.4 or 4.1.5 on you scooter.

It is dangerous, irritating and embarrassing for sure but this is expected from a software running on wheels. But unfortunately all vehicles now are softwares on wheels more than machines! Probably because of this issue, Ather has not released any new features through OTA updates. I'm waiting for the dark mode since long but I'm now ok with not having a dark mode but a stable OS. After stability is taken care, let them give new features.

[wheelguy]

Ather 450 gets new OTA upgrade with Dark Theme and other new features - Link

Owners can now manually choose between ligh/dark theme or set it to auto mode.

New Delhi: The electric scooter manufacturer Ather Energy on Thursday released its seventh Over The Air upgrade (OTA) for Ather 450, the company said in a release.

The update brings a Dark theme to the Ather 450 dashboard for an enhanced night riding experience and improved visibility. This update also adds other enhancements like a more responsive keyboard, and the ability to save previous riding modes, claims the company. Ather said the new Dark Theme available on the touch screen dashboard has been a highly requested feature on its Forum.

As per the release, owners can now manually choose between light and dark themes in the settings menu, or choose the auto feature which switches on the dark theme between 6 PM and 6 AM and switches to the light theme the rest of the day.

The new theme is claimed to be significantly reducing the amount of light on the screen and eases the strain on the eyes for a more comfortable, distraction-free ride at night.

Commenting on the new upgrade, Swapnil Jain, Co-founder and CTO Ather Energy said, “We are happy to take yet another step to enhance the Ather 450’s rider experience. We designed the Ather products to improve with time rather than lose value once purchased and the owners have played a big role in prioritizing features and updates so we can continuously make improvements."

He further added, "The growing Ather community challenges us time and again and I am glad that we are able to continuously enhance their ownership experience. We are excited about bringing this new generation of scooters to more people in the country.”