Ather Energy, one of India’s leading electric two-wheeler manufacturers, today hosted the 4th edition of Ather Community Day, its annual gathering of riders, EV enthusiasts and the wider Ather community. What began in 2016 as a meet-up of 30 to 40 early believers has grown into Ather’s largest annual community gathering, with over 4,600 people attending this year.
This year’s Community Day brought four announcements across product and ownership: KonarcTM, Ather’s newest scooter; Ather True HealthTM, a comprehensive vehicle health report and resale-value assessment; the fifth-generation Ather BedrockTM Battery platform; and Ather NodeTM, a charging solution for apartment communities. Together, the announcements address key barriers consumers continue to face with electric two-wheelers, from everyday usability and battery safety to long-term battery health, resale value and access to convenient home charging.
Tarun Mehta, Co-Founder & CEO, Ather Energy, said, “Community Day has always been about sharing what we have been building with the people who have been part of our journey. This year, we have some of our biggest launches across the vehicle, battery, charging and ownership experience. Each of these comes from a different problem we have been working on, but the larger goal is the same: to keep removing the barriers that come with new technology and make EVs a more natural choice for more people. We believe the next phase of EV adoption will come from getting the fundamentals right, at scale, and that is exactly what we are building towards.”
Introducing Konarc
Konarc led the announcements as Ather’s newest scooter and the first product built on its new EL platform. Designed around everyday Indian riding, Konarc brings together comfort, stability, range and ease of ownership. Engineered for how scooters are actually used in India, Konarc pairs everyday practicality with Ather’s technology and engineering. Konarc is built for mainstream Indian riders, focusing on ride comfort, stability, everyday usability, and serviceability.
Konarc is available in six variants across the S and Z product lines, with IDC range options from 100 km to 200 km. It brings a 10,000-km service interval, roughly once a year for most riders (whichever is earlier), along with easier access to wear-and-tear components. All variants come with the fifth-generation BedrockTM Battery and a 10-year/1,00,000 km (whichever is earlier) warranty with a 70% state-of-health guarantee. New features include Advanced Electronic Braking System (AeBS™), MagicKey, AutoPop and AirWalk™, while onboard charging and Combined Charging can reduce home charging time by up to half.
Fifth-generation Ather BedrockTM Batteries introduce new safety technology and longer warranty
Ather’s fifth-generation BedrockTM Battery platform introduces BreachSenseTM, a real-time monitoring system designed to detect microscopic damage following a high-impact accident. In rare cases, an impact can create a small crack that allows moisture to enter the battery over time. BreachSenseTM is designed to detect such micro-leaks within hours, allowing Ather to alert the rider and take appropriate action, including activating limp mode where required.
The new platform also has five times higher cell-balancing capability than the previous generation, allowing Ather to balance the cells in its battery packs for longer time and at a higher intensity. With this, Ather now expects the batteries to reach 70% state of health much later at approximately 1L to 1.2L KMs, compared to around 80,000 to 1,00,000 km for the previous generation. This extended battery life is backed by Ather’s new Warranty, which covers the battery for 10 years or 1,00,000 km (whichever is earlier), with a 70% state-of-health guarantee. The warranty also includes coverage for defects and failures, idle-state assurance, subject to applicable terms. Sales of the 10 year battery warranty will begin soon.
AtherNodeTM brings intelligent charging to apartment communities
AtherNodeTM is a charging solution designed to address one of the key challenges of charging electric 2Ws and 4Ws in residential and commercial spaces with limited available load. As more EVs are added, Buildings will hit their sanctioned load capacity making it difficult to support the growth of EV’s in apartment buildings.
AtherNodeTM uses a single central gateway system to manage up to 1,000 chargers within a residential or commercial complex, allowing users to have a dedicated charging point in their parking spaces. The system is designed to scale with the community’s needs, with additional gateways and AtherNodeTM chargers that can be added as the number of EVs grows.
The gateway continuously monitors the state of charge and charging requirements of connected vehicles and dynamically distributes available power across chargers. It also monitors the building’s overall power utilisation. When the building approaches its max available load during periods of peak demand, Ather Node can automatically reduce or pause charging and resume it once sufficient capacity becomes available. This enables communities and businesses to add charging points without constantly upgrading their electrical infrastructure.
Ather True HealthTM: A comprehensive health report of your scooter
Ather introduced Ather True HealthTM, a comprehensive health report that gives riders a clear view of their scooter’s condition. Using years of connected-vehicle data, it combines factors including age, kilometres ridden, riding behaviour, component condition, battery status and service history to generate a health score out of five, along with the health of key components including the battery, motor, dashboard, charging system, belt and brakes.
Ather True HealthTM also provides an estimated resale value for eligible scooters based on their condition and history, giving buyers and sellers a reference beyond age and odometer readings. Riders can share their complete Health report with prospective buyers, making the scooter’s condition and ownership history easier to assess during resale. Ather True HealthTM and the resale value estimate are available for scooters that have completed 3 years on the road with AtherStackTM Pro
