BHPian Fdhere recently shared this with other enthusiasts:The Ather 450s (2023-24) after a year of ownership: a overviewSummery:Overall, our experience with the Ather 450s has been positive. It has great styling, features and is extremely similar to a normal scooter in other regards which I feel is a good thing. It has many quality of life features like the reverse gear. It has great riding ergonomics, great handling and overall performance, a range which is enough for most tasks and is a well built and engineered scooter. The only place i feel Ather should improve on is the screen. The LCD is good enough for the basic speedometer and other necessary information but it is not a touch screen and all connect features are behind a monthly subscription. I understand that this is a base model so maybe such things can be excused but I would like Ather to work upon them. It’s a great scooter and in my mind the best one on the market right now.Likes:1. Great Handling and performance (especially the acceleration) 2. Dose’t get in your way (By this I mean it just lets you ride and you are not bothered by annoying messages or useless prompts) 3. Futuristic design (looks sleek and a bit different from existing scooters) 4.Good comfort for the pillion riderDislikes:1. Kind of expensive compared to other similar scooters 2. Limited Range (not a problem on the new 2025 450s) 3. Limited features present due to the LCD display, and some features which are present are behind a yearly subscription. 4. Expensive to service if something breaks. (We have found it to be extremely reliable but any problem which may arise or be caused due to external factors could be expensive to fix; our experience at least) We bought the Ather 450s in November 2024, and so far, we’ve found that it is a great scooter with no inherent (foreshadowing for later) flaws. We don’t ride the scooter too far, so even after nearly a year, the odometer reads only 2700 km. Due to such low mileage, we have never needed to use the public Ather charging centres except for the first time when we brought it home from the dealership. We had considered other options such as the OLA s1 and TVS Iqube but neither suited our needs as well as the Ather. We found the others to be unreliable (The OLA s1 at that time was seen randomly bursting into flames). At the end we just found that the Ather was a well engineered product and suited our needs perfectly, those being a small scooter which is ideal for the city and should be extremely reliable. The booking and delivery experience was nothing special, just how you expect it to be. There were no discounts on the scooter at the time we purchased it. Our Ather 450s from 2023-24 has a 90km range in eco mode with a full battery, but we found this is not quite accurate. The Ather is always mistaken when you start the ride with a full battery, and either increases its range estimate or decreases it depending on the conditions and your driving style. It changes the estimate by an extremely small amount, like 1 or 2 km max, but still, I found it quite interesting. When the range estimate really matters (when the battery is low), it’s accurate to the meter and has been very reliable. I have, till now, not noticed any battery degradation. We don’t drive the scooter much, it’s usually only around 10 or 15 km a day so we only need to charge the battery once a week. The reverse mode is also quite useful and is a feature we use regularly and is one every scooter should have. You only get to know how useful it is once you use it. The Ather is not a quite scooter, the motor is connected to the wheel via a chain and thus it creates a somewhat futuristic warp sound. Personally I love it, however some may not. This is somewhat of a feature rather than a bug though as when you’re going down the roads, others get alerted that a vehicle is behind them. The Ather riding modes are where it gets interesting. The default modes are Eco, Normal, and Sport (There is no other on the 450s). But if you go into the settings, you can enable “Smart Eco” mode. This is an absolutely useless mode. It accelerates infuriatingly slow and don’t even think about overtaking. It’s there just in case you have a really low battery and REALLY need to go home. But be warned, you might just be better off charging the scooter and then going home. The other 3 modes are quite balanced, and I have no complaints. The normal ECO mode is usable, but I would not recommend it for overtaking; however, in city traffic, it is ideal. Ride or Normal mode is the one we usually use; it unleashes most of the Ather’s power and is ideal for 90 % of use cases. The sports mode is way too fun, it’s Ideal for overtaking at high speeds, but be warned, the Ather’s Max speed is 90 km/h; however, it will take you from 0 to 90 faster than any other vehicle on the Road. There is a range trade-off with Sports mode, and that’s another reason why, personally, I feel Ride is probably the best mode to ride the scooter in. However, the range tradeoff is not that great in sports mode, but an item to note is that if your range is less than 20km, then you are restricted to eco mode (Not Smart Eco). The Ather has good ride quality, nothing to write home about, but still it is ok enough for Indian roads, it has a sportier setup than most others but it gives you control over the scooter in sticky situations. The acceleration, braking and overall power delivery did take my parents a bit of time to get used to, as previously we owned a TVS scooty pep, and it simply can’t be compared with the Ather in any regard. The handling has been excellent and overall the Ather comes off as a well-engineered and well-built scooter . The backseat comfort is good, ok enough for a long ride. We found that range has never been an issue for us, even when we needed to go for a long ride, the Ather has adequate range, and fast enough charging for us. Coming to charging, we live in an apartment complex and thus, at first, charging was an issue. Our building is quite old and does not have any EV-friendly parking spots or even sockets near the parking area. This was not too big of an issue, as we were able to attach a small box (with adequate ventilation) where the charger sits. It’s a simple enough setup, but I don’t think it will work in modern societies without EV-friendly facilities, as they might not allow such setups. The boot is quite good. It has a light which makes it easy to see inside at night, and it can fit a half-size helmet inside. The mechanism to open the boot is quite fiddly, but you get used to it. The charging port is also quite fiddly to open and close, and often it does not close properly requiring you to attempt to close it 3 or even 4 times. Stock image taken from The Times of India The LCD display on our 450s is not great. It’s just a speedometer, and you can change the settings a bit, but it has no real use case. I attempted to use the navigation feature once or twice, but it simply did not work, and even if it did, it just shows arrows for when to turn; you would just be better off turning on audio cues on your phone and wearing headphones. Plus, a subscription is required for this functionality. We are still currently on the free 1-year preview, which you get with the scooter when you buy it, and we won’t be continuing with the subscription when it comes time to renew it. I can see that if you had a 450x or Rizta, it might be worth it to pay the 1000 per year for this functionality with the touch screen, but the 450s has such a basic and elementary user interface that it simply doesn’t make sense. Overall, I don’t think it is going to be useful as a smart display, but it works well as a normal speedometer and performs other basic functions as you would expect. The Ather app is good, but it is not exceptionally helpful. We personally only use it to determine if we need to charge the scooter at night or not. I feel like this is a missed opportunity, so much of the functionality is locked behind the subscription. For free, you can 1. Look up nearby EV chargers 2. Connect via Bluetooth to the scooter and control music from the Ather, and that’s it. With the 450s, you don’t miss out on much if you don’t pay the subscription price, but I can see this as a real bummer for the people who own a 450x, Apex or Rizta. Now, let me get on to the problem we have had with the 450s. One day, the horn randomly stopped working; no big deal. My father went to the service centre and they fixed it immediately; however, my father was standing beside the man who was fixing the issue and saw sparks. He was concerned and asked why they were present. The service centre repairman answered that it was because there was a wiring fault. My father was concerned that there were sparks asked whether it was possible to fix the wiring. The repairman answered yes, and that to do so required rewiring the entire frontend of the scooter. And that is the story of how the bill came out to be 8000 for a simple horn problem. We did have a warranty, and thus the money we actually paid was only around 70, but still, it was quite surprising for me. I am not sure of the specifics as to what actually happened, but this is concerning as to what future bills may be. I have time and time again heard that Athers are extremely reliable and never break down, and I have found that to be true, but if a problem does in fact arise, it may cost you more money than you think. The Ather 450s is a great scooter which we would buy again, apart from 1 slightly alarming incident it has been flawless. Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.
