Diving Deeper Into Electric Scooters – Should You Buy One?

Conventional ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) scooters like the Honda Activa, TVS NTorq and Yamaha Fascino have kept getting better and better over the years to the point that their build quality is better than ever, all the companies’ respective powertrains have reached amazing levels of refinement and power in addition to convenience features like GPS integration and phone connectivity being the icing on the cake as well.

 

 

Till quite recently, ICE scooters dominated the market to the extent that a lot of people weren’t even enquiring about electric despite a few products actually being on sale. Electric wasn’t seen as a full-fledged alternative to a petrol scooter because a few years ago the electric scooters simply weren’t as much of a promising package as an established ICE scooter like a Honda Activa. The few electric scooters available some years ago weren’t built great, had limited to no service network, almost zero charging infrastructure and small batteries which meant less power and less range.

 

Today in 2022 however things are very different. Incredibly different. You might have heard of a company called Ather. Ever since this Bangalore based company launched their 450 series of scooters, they’ve been taking the country by storm. The Ather 450X broke so many stereotypes regarding electric scooters that the public embraced it. It has a well sized battery with a maximum range of 85km, a dedicated warp mode (which reduces range) which makes this scooter so quick and exciting that it’s capable of wiping out the whole ‘electric scooters are slow and boring’ stereotype from your mind in a fraction of a second.

 

The design is unlike anything else and the build quality is solid too. Gone is a traditional speedometer since the 450X has a full colour LCD touchscreen panel which can store documents, use google maps, pair with your phone and display a live feed of your battery status. There are two different chargers you can get for the scooter depending on where and how you plan to charge it. Best of all though, the estimated cost to fully charge the battery and get a maximum range of 85km is only between 15 and 20 rupees and this is of course in addition to the vehicle itself not producing any harmful gases whatsoever. A TVS Ntorq would need around 200 rupees of fuel to go the same distance and would also contribute to a lot of air pollution in the process. I’ll link my full review of the Ather 450X along with this article if you’d like my full opinion along with complete details about this scooter.

 

 

Now the floodgates have burst open. People have seen the benefits and possibilities and companies are striving to design and produce the best electric scooter possible for the consumers.

 

 

TVS and Bajaj have the iQube and Chetak scooters currently on sale, Ola is all set to roll out deliveries of the S1 and S1 Pro (the latter of which promises to comfortably reach speeds higher than 100km and also go 183KM on a single charge!) and a new startup called Simple Energy is almost ready with their ‘One’ electric scooter which has 2 batteries (one fixed and one removable) with a promised combined range of 236km.

 

 

Because EVs have an electric motor powering them rather than a conventional engine, they ride very differently. The electric powertrain comes with its own unique set of benefits as well as issues. An electric motor has only one moving part hence it’s a much more simple mechanism and has none of the vibrations you get from a petrol scooter, it doesn’t matter how fast you’re going. Aside from a subtle whine from the motor, these scooters are totally silent which is another great benefit. Best of all though is the fact that electric motors produce monumental torque figures and all of the torque is delivered at once from the instant you open the throttle. What does this mean? Well basically electric scooters accelerate ridiculously fast! The initial boost you get is incredibly thrilling to say the least. Electric scooters have a dedicated economy as well as performance mode to serve up either good range or good power as and when required.

 

 

There’s also a few downsides to keep in mind though. Electric motors get hot and they can’t deliver peak performance unless they’re constantly at ideal temperature. What this implies is that if you overtake a few cars with a certain amount of throttle input and attempt to do the same again in a while with the same amount of throttle, there’s a chance your scooter won’t pick up speed as quickly as it did the first time round because the motor has heated up. Therefore EVs lack the predictability of power delivery that you get from an IC engine. There will also be a small amount of battery health drop over the years which means the peak performance as well as peak range will reduce over time but this drop is said to be extremely slow as EV batteries are designed to maintain peak or close to peak battery health for as long as possible. For reference the Ather 450X comes with a 3 year / unlimited km warranty for the battery. Around 70% battery health is when it’s considered to be the right time to get a new battery. A new battery outside the company’s battery warranty period still costs north of Rs.50,000 but will mostly reduce in the coming years at least a bit.

 

Alright but how are these scooters going to be like to live with you may ask? The ownership experience and ease of use is a large part of purchasing the scooter. Well, each company has a slightly different way of doing this and currently Ather is the most established of these since they have a large number of users as well as a steadily growing infrastructure. Using a portable charger or dot charger (which you fit in your parking lot) which is uniquely coded to your vehicle so nobody can steal your charge, you can charge up your vehicle overnight so you wake up every day to a full battery. In addition to this Ather also has a steadily expanding ecosystem of Ather Grid fast chargers outside housing complexes, cafes or restaurants which you can use to tank up your vehicle for free, although it will be paid fairly soon.

 

This charging infrastructure will be key to ownership of these vehicles and all players in this EV space have pretty ambitious visions for it. The biggest issue I see here is that these companies have not indicated towards shared charging stations in any way I.e., you won't be able to charge your Ather at an Ola charging point and vice versa which I think is severely restricting the growth speed of EV infrastructure. I understand that this is done because different batteries have different ideal charging speeds in order to balance battery health and time taken to recharge but honestly, I really do think shared charging spaces is what will accelerate the EV industry.

 

Initial prices of these EV scooters have been high but with subsidies starting to kick in they’re getting closer and closer to the prices of conventional ICE scooters. For reference, a 125CC Yamaha Fascino now costs around Rs.93,000 and has a high recurring fuel cost as well as relatively higher maintenance charges.

 

 

So here I’ve briefly outlined the pros and cons of buying an electric scooter VS an ICE scooter as of today but one thing is undeniable here however you look at it; fossil fuels are running out and alternatives are the way forward. The question is are you ready to make the switch?