Best electric scooters under 1.5 lakh: Vida V1 or Ather 450S or others?

If both electric scooters don't work, also open to the likes of the Jupiter 125 or NTorq 125.

BHPian arnav17 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I'm posting this on behalf of someone I know.

He is looking for a scooter for his wife, which will be her first vehicle and he is more inclined towards electric.

Another important point is that he is a Mridangam artist and he would use the scooter quite often carrying along his mridangam.

Budget: 1.5l max

Requirements:

• Removable Battery
• Good range (100km+)
• Comfortable seating for rider + pillion.
• Good performance
• No major heating issues

Usage:

• Upto 20km every day.

Scooters considered:

1. Hero Vida V1 Pro: They are most inclined to this as it ticks most of the boxes, but they want to know about the real-world range and if any heating issues crop up. Request owners to pitch in with advice.
2. Ather 450S: A great all-rounder and reasonably the king of Indian EV scooters, which I recommended. But the removable battery is the only feature.
3. TVS Jupiter 125: This was based on our experience, fantastic ownership till now since Oct'23 with zero hiccups. The Boot space too really impressed him. But as I said, they are more inclined towards EVs.
4. TVS Ntorq 125: Same reasoning as the Jupiter, not sure about a petrol scooter, and the minus is the boot space.

Not considered:

1. Ola S1 Air - Keeping the mridangam might be difficult.
2. TVS iQube - Did not like the driving experience.

Request owners and all members to pitch in and help him decide whether a petrol or an electric scooter makes sense.

Here's what BHPian shancz had to say on the matter:

1. I am not convinced by the removable battery pack approach. These are heavy units (6kgs each, 12kgs in total), and utmost care has to be taken to not bump them anywhere while carrying them upstairs. I doubt they've any diagnosis tools which can check if battery cells have been damaged or even if they do have it the users would be proactive enough to get it scanned for each small bump. IMHO the risk just moves from your parking lot to your bedroom. One such unfortunate example had been posted earlier (Pure EV Pluto's battery catches fire, the house burnt down).
2. Almost all can easily give you a range of 70-90 kms but what is your daily usage? My suggestion would be to get out of the ICE mindset if deciding on an EV. You plug it in after each day so you have a fully charged battery at the start of each day to cater for any unforeseen circumstances. Also, do read up on when to charge your battery and this should be mentioned in the manual.
3. Haven't come across any incidents regarding overheating EVs under normal usage from Ather, iQube or Chetak. Vida is too new to form an opinion on this point. Ola has reported issues with the Pro while there are other issues with the Air's hub motor.

I think based on your usage you should first decide on EV vs ICE and only then look at specific scooters of each.

You'll have to calculate your daily running, difference in purchase and running costs(petrol vs electric) and estimated time you'll keep this vehicle.

The resale value is unknown and not a lot of hope there for an EV. An Ather showroom had once claimed a battery replacement cost of 50k but they could have been misinformed. Check with owners or the respective workshops for each manufacturer.

@arnav17, you got a good price for your scooter because of the increase in prices of those scooters today. That should be considered an exception and not the norm. But of course, ICE scooter's resale will still be better than EVs as the EV resale is still an unknown due to various factors, the top being the battery and motor.

Here's what BHPian bijims had to say on the matter:

I am also in a similar dilemma and have considered quite a few options including the OLA S1X+, BAJAJ CHETAK, HERO VIDA V1 PRO, ATHER 450S, and TVS IQUBE, but of the lot, the IQUBE was not selected mainly due to lower range and higher price.

I have tested all of them and in my opinion, the HERO VIDA V1 PRO is a good option provided you can avail of the offers as and when they come by. At the moment (till 19th January) there is a flat 12750 discount on Flipkart for ICICI card holders and over 12,000 discount for Bank of Baroda card holders. During Diwali, the discounts were well over 30k, I have been in touch with the dealership and they believe that around 23 to 26th January, there will be another offer rollout out and it should be more than the current offers.

Pricing for the Vida V1 Pro comes to around 1.64 lakhs on-road here in Kerala, and it should be more or less similar in Karnataka as well. (Kerala and Karnataka have the highest road taxes and no state subsidy either). I have attached the price list for your reference. with the current offers, the price after discounts stands around 1.52 lakhs here. If the discounts rise to the tune of 25k to 30k (like the dealerships expect) then it would be around 1.35 lakh to 1.40 lakh, which makes it a good deal.

As far as range is considered, the VIDA V1 PRO lives up to its expected range of 110 km and it is quite easily manageable. options like the OLA S1 AIR, BAJAJ CHETAK, and TVS IQUBE provide around 100 km too. Whereas the Ather 450S provides around 90 km of real-world range.

I would have also recommended the Chetak (with discounts of Rs.15102 on the Urbane variant and Rs. 12564 on the Premium variant) which brings down prices to just Rs. 1,15,000 and 1,39,000 on-road here in Kerala, but I am not sure it may serve your purpose.

If you are interested here is the link to the thread I posted. (I was initially considering the Ola S1X+ but am now willing to wait and check out other options as well, as since my query offers for Ather 450S(21,000 discount), Vida V1 Pro (12,750 discount and other benefits, Chetak (upto 15102 discount) have all started to come out )

Here's what BHPian v4run had to say on the matter:

Vida owner here 4700 kms on the odo. Everyone speculating on the scooty is blatantly wrong and it’s just their opinion and not a fact. Simply put Vida is just a cheaper and better alternative to the Ather 450X (my opinion) hero owns Ather (major stake) a lot of the tech I feel has been carried over and the chargers are cross-compatible too. I would recommend anybody and everybody to buy the Vida even if it is more expensive than the Ather 450x. The service and spare parts are dead cheap and easily available too( had a crash recently speaking from experience) unlike Ather where the spares are as rare as spotting a Lamborghini and as expensive as it gets (speaking from an experienced friend who owns it and had a similar accident).

Situation one: you went to your friend’s place 60 kms away and you need to charge up to go home. What will the Ather owner do? Vida owners can simply charge the battery at home.

I bought it for 1.25 on the road and I don’t regret it one bit.

Even if I bought it for 1.45 which is its current price I wouldn’t regret it. It’s been like 3 months now and I already saved over 10k in fuel expenses compared to my old bike. (I’m not even including the endless repairs and maintenance it required)

I’m happy riding it too, I’m quicker than 90% of the traffic on the road and silent with no vibes so in a calmer state of mind.

Yes, I am slower to my office by 5-10 minutes compared to my old bike but who cares? I’m saving a lot of money.

I’d recommend looking into River Indie if possible or the simple one.

Here's what BHPian N4Revv had to say on the matter:

End your search and go for Vida. The only EV scooter in your list that comes with a removable battery is Vida so stop wasting time in comparison with other scooters. Charging an EV scooter is a hell lot of a task if you don’t have a fixed parking spot at your home/apartment with an available charging point.

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