Introduction
In the past four months, the Ather 450X has been subjected to quite a few tests. Right from the usual grocery runs to office commutes, and even a proper (100-0%) range test. We have done it all. But, owing to its range limitations, the possibility of doing a touring report was thrown out of the window. Nevertheless, we did subject it to a weekend outing. And here’s what we found out.
The Weekend Outing
With 85km of maximum available range (60km in Sport Mode), your options of taking the Ather 450X on a weekend outing are seriously limited. So, we (Me and Neil) decided to head for a quick Sunday brunch at Saltt Restaurant in Karjat. Karjat being 32km away from Panvel, a 65km round trip would be a cakewalk, we thought. But boy, were we in for a surprise?
The Good Things
A random check on the Ather App revealed that Ather has installed two new fast chargers in my vicinity. One in Panvel (my city) and another enroute Karjat. So, that gave me much-needed relief from range anxiety. I fast charged the scooter to 100% and off we went. Now, the road towards Karjat has quite some elevation changes, which comes into play when you are riding an EV.
But despite riding with a pillion, the 450X faced no problems trudging along in Sport mode. Sure there was some resistance from the motor, as a result of the added weight, but nothing that could be a cause for concern. And even with two people on-board, the scooter’s sharp handling helped switching sides seamlessly around the bends. In fact, the 450X just flows into corners, courtesy of its stiff suspension, without having the need to slow down.
In Sport and Warp modes, the Ather 450X is a quick scooter, and in no time you’d be doing speeds of 80kmph. And that’s where the disc brakes deliver in spades. The front offers a good bite and helps in shedding speed briskly. As for the rear, although it offers good stopping power, it locks up quickly, giving you unnecessary hairy moments. We’d have loved it if Ather had offered ABS on the 450X.
Challenges Faced
As we had reported in the city report, the Ather 450X’s seat is too soft and uncomfortable for anything over an hour’s of usage. So, it didn’t come as a surprise when Neil complained about the uncomfortable pillion seat. Besides the soft seat, there’s not much space to move around either.
Another issue we faced was that riding two-up requires you to wring the throttle to the stops to extract the needed performance in Sport and Warp modes. This resulted in more power consumption, and the range dropped considerably. That’s when we thought of charging the scooter on our way back from Karjat at the new charging station at Hotel Om Navratna, near Chowk.
As we rolled in to charge the scooter on our return journey, we found out that another user had already occupied the fast charger. This meant, we had to wait for nearly 45 minutes, before we could charge our scooter. What’s more, as it turned out, there was no charging option available at the hotel, and the 3-pin socket on the Ather Grid charger couldn’t be used as the existing user had locked his scooter after plugging it in for charging. On the upside, we made the most of this downtime by refuelling ourselves with some much-needed sugarcane juice.
All in all, yes, you can plan a weekend outing with the Ather 450X. But, there’s a big caveat to it. You need to carefully plan your ride as you won’t find a charger easily, and even when you do find it, not every charger is unoccupied for you to use. Moreover, hotel or garage owners aren’t yet familiar with EVs, making it harder to convince them to let us charge our EVs at their places.
Vehicle Log
Make - Ather Energy
Model - 450X
Odometer - 1627km
Km this month - 614km
Photography by Kaustubh Gandhi
Gallery
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Ather 450X TFT Touchscreen Instrument Cluster
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