Ather Maxi-style Electric Scooter Patent Filed

The Ather 450X-based maxi-style scooter could be launched in India next year

The Ather maxi-style scooter appears to have all-LED lighting, a TFT touchscreen, and modern underpinnings. Unlike the Ather 450 and the Ather 450X, this one is likely to be built on a different frame. It’s likely to be powered by the same powertrain as the Ather 450X.

Ather Energy has filed a patent for a maxi-style electric scooter. Interestingly, it was filed back in May 2019, the pre-pandemic period when the electric vehicle segment was just gathering steam. If you can recall, the Ather 450 electric scooter was launched in 2018, so the maxi-style scooter in the patents may have been Ather’s next step intended for export business.

However, in an interview with ZigWheels earlier this year, Ather Energy’s CEO Tarun Mehta, mentioned, “We’ve looked at export markets, and the product does fit in really well for certain European and Latin American markets. Actually, we came very close to signing up with one international partner at one point, but then the pandemic struck, and after that, we took a call.” 

“I’m not saying we shouldn’t do it; we should do it, but until we’ve reasonably gotten some stability in the domestic market, international is a distraction for us,” he added.

So based on these developments, Ather may launch the maxi-style electric in India first, presumably in mid-2022. It could then be followed by a launch in the international markets, perhaps in late-2022 or 2023.  By then, Ather would’ve utilised the full manufacturing capacity of its new plant in Hosur.

As per the patent images, the maxi-style scooter looks quite similar to the Ather 450/Ather 450X in terms of its underpinnings. It gets the same telescopic front fork, disc brakes, rear monoshock, and alloy wheels as the Ather 450. Having said that, the frame in the maxi-style scooter is likely to be a more conventional (and cost-effective) tubular steel unit, according to the patents filed in July 2020. It even has mounting brackets for what's likely to be a battery pack. Ather had  patented a conventional single-sided swingarm, with an integrated drive, in the same month as well.

You could also see the large instrument panel, likely to be the same TFT touchscreen unit as the production scooter. Interestingly, this scooter doesn’t have the trademark exposed trellis subframe like the Ather 450/Ather 450X. Ather Energy perhaps wanted to give the scooter a little more mature look in terms of design. 

The powertrain is likely to be shared with the Ather 450X. For reference, the Ather 450X produces a peak power of 6kW and a peak torque of 26Nm, making it one of the fastest accelerating scooters in the country. In our tests, the Ather 450X returned a range of 91.4km under Eco mode. 

In the interview, Tarun had also mentioned that in the long term, Ather electric scooters will eventually become more affordable. So keeping this in mind, the Ather maxi-style electric scooter could be priced lower than the Ather 450X, with the likelihood of cutting down on some of the fancier features. For reference, the Ather 450X costs Rs 1,46,926, ex-showroom Delhi, including subsidies.

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The upcoming Ather maxi-style electric scooter will give the Bengaluru-based brand more firepower to rival the upcoming Ola electric scooter as well as the Hero-Gogoro electric scooter. Okinawa also plans to launch an electric maxi-scooter, called the Okinawa Cruiser. You can read more about it here.

Images of the Ather 450X and Ather 450 used for representation.