Ather Scooters Get Major Upgrades: Smaller Battery But More Range

Quick Reads

• Ather has updated the battery packs across the 450 and Rizta ranges
• Rizta’s smaller battery variants now use an LFP battery pack
• Battery capacities have been revised to 2.7 kWh and 3.5 kWh
• Despite smaller battery sizes, claimed range has improved
• The 450 series continues to use with the lithium-ion battery

Ather Scooters Get New Battery Packs

Ather Energy silently updated battery packs for both the Ather 450 series and the Ather Rizta family scooter. For the first time, Ather has introduced Lithium Iron/Ferro Phosphate (LFP) battery chemistry on one of its production scooters. The 450 series still continues with the lithium-ion/NMC battery packs. Also, the battery pack capabilities of both the scooters have been revised; details are as follows:

Ather Rizta Gets An LFP Battery

The most interesting upgrade is the introduction of an LFP battery on the Ather Rizta. The popular Ather family scooter was available with 2.9 kWh and 3.7 kWh NMC battery packs. These have now been replaced by 2.7 kWh and 3.5 kWh units. The thing to note down here is that the scooter still claims the same IDC range, even with the smaller battery packs.

Old vs New Ather Rizta Comparison

Ather 450 Range Continues With NMC Batteries

While the Ather 450 range does get the revised battery capacities, the composition has remained the same as before – the NMC chemistry. The Ather 450 range includes three scooters: Ather 450S, Ather 450X, and the Ather 450 Apex. As all of these products need a lot of juice to run efficiently, the brand has decided not to switch these to LFP chemistry, even though LFP batteries have a longer life and are more thermally stable. We think that the energy-dense nature of the NMC batteries is the reason they have been retained.

Here’s a comparison between an LFP battery and a Lithium-ion battery, which will give you a rough idea of which one is better for which purpose.

LFP battery vs Lithium-ion / NMC battery

Purpose Of These Upgrades And The Battery Pack Revisions

In our opinion, the brand wants to make the Ather Rizta even more durable and future-proof. The same is the case with the Ather 450X, but Ather cannot gamble on the product’s USP – its sporty performance. And hence has decided to retain the NMC batteries.

But, when the battery capacity went down, why didn’t the range drop? Because the batteries are better optimised, built on a better architecture, and are now improved with a bunch of software optimisations.

What Ather Buyers Get With The New Battery Packs

In short, the Ather Rizta buyers get longer battery life, better thermal efficiency and safety, improved range, and lower battery degradation over time. And the Ather 450 range buyers benefit from better performance, more energy-dense batteries, and improved efficiency. Also, charging the NMC batteries is a much faster process, which will make them quite convenient. All in all, the brand has maintained equilibrium in its product range, and now, it will be very interesting to see what battery pack the upcoming Ather EL-01-based family scooter gets. Stay tuned.

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