Team-BHP - Ather 450X electric scooter with improved performance. EDIT: Launched, prices start at ₹99,999

Ather has announced that they have increased the prices of the Ather 450X and 450Plus due to increase in commodity and logistics costs.

I checked their website for the updated prices and in all the 23 cities that they are selling right now, it is in the range of ₹5500. What is interesting is that most of the increase has been listed under charger cost. My guess is this is probably done so that there is no impact on the FAME subsidy (and it's related work with the Government agencies). Previously a charger bought during vehicle purchase was discounted and was priced at ₹1. The same charger if you wanted to buy additionally as a spare costed around ₹11,000. Now a Charger bought with the vehicle is priced at ₹5,475. The same charger if you want to buy additionally will cost the same ₹11,000.

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Originally Posted by hemanth.anand (Post 5234856)

Ather has announced that they have increased the prices of the Ather 450X and 450Plus due to an increase in commodity and logistics costs.

With these price increases over already higher prices, I am afraid Ather is pricing itself out of the market.

In the first 2 years, they were only able to sell around 6000 scooters. Since 2021 with expansion to multiple cities, sales started to increase slightly but they were still less than 1000 scooters per month. With FAME II subsidy increase combined with ever-increasing petrol prices helped them gain more sales in the 2nd half of 2021. But still, they are nowhere near what Ather would have hoped.

On the other hand, Ather CEO seems to be getting frustrated with Ola gaining more investments, bookings, and mindshare and valuations. He is publicly claiming he will fix the valuations of Ather instead of fixing the low sales of Ather despite being in the market for over 3 years. In November, Ather announced that they are expanding the production to 4 lakh units per annum in 2022. The reason for expansion is that they are already operating at a full capacity of 1.2 lakh units per annum but based on their monthly sales they are nowhere near 10,000 units per month. They never crossed 3000 per month based on Vahan registration details. Why go for such high expansion when they are not even able to sell 1/3rd of their current capacity?

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Originally Posted by sri_tesla (Post 5234992)

I'm all in agreement with you.
Probably, they're of expectation that just like Tesla they will be able to gamble and expand their reach gradually and by the time they're into teir 3 cities, they'll be huge. Except I already saw few Athers in my small city, without a local dealership here (these few 450's I saw, are included in the dismayal sales figure).

I believe they need to have a cheaper product. One without dual disc brakes, without that flashy console & data analytics, one with a smaller battery.
With an average run of 3-5 kms/ ride in my small city, I think Ather can target a 50 kms range & 60 kmph top end for their junior scoot and small city market. The next battery change, they can plonk in one with better range, if they plan it well and homologate both combinations (correct me if I've made a wrong assumption).

Can't we see so many premium motorcycle and scooter showrooms closing? The companies themselves closing?
A product portfolio is like a pyramid: flagships are the top stone blocks, without the bottom stones (commuter/budget products) they will fall or not rise enough.
Discontinuing S340 was a mistake, they should've instead let it remain and gone for a S230 launch (a junior product).
And look at them pursuing their dreams like non MBA engineers entering the market for the first time, giving a Rs. 1.7~ Lakh scooter to the consumer. And it isn't even that speedy either.

Mod Note: BHPian nkrishnap's Ather 450X Ownership Review has been taken live at this link. Please continue the discussion over on the new thread. Thanks!