Ather 450 customers can now charge only up to 80% on Ather Grid. Here's why

Ather Energy has released a new notification to its customers stating that they will now be able to charge their respective electric scooters only up to 80 per cent on the Ather Grid public charging network. Previously, users could fully charge the vehicle up to 100 per cent via the fast charger, which will not be the case anymore. The move has been made for fair usage for everyone on the Ather Grid and for safety reasons as well.

With the increasing number of Ather users across the country, every owner needs to get a fair chance at using the Ather Grid. The company aims to make it possible by capping the charging limit up to 80 per cent via the fast charger. Do note that the Ather public chargers only offer fast charging to 80 per cent anyway. The remaining 20 per cent is charged slowly, keeping in mind the battery health.

The other main reason for mandating a cut-off at 80 per cent is to safeguard the connector. Ather will have to stop charging for safety reasons when disconnecting from the solenoid. The solenoid ensures that the flow of electricity to the battery happens seamlessly. So, if someone tries to remove the connector while the vehicle is charging, it can potentially damage the connector. In a worst-case scenario, the connector will weld on the charger.

The solenoid locks the charger connector to the vehicle connector once the key is removed. You cannot remove the charger connector from the vehicle while the scooter is charging. This led to reduced availability of the charging grid even if the scooter completed 80 per cent of the charge. Customers asked for a safe way to remove the charger connector from the solenoid and let the charging continue for other users.

The latest update now makes this possible and once the charging stops at 80 per cent, another user can remove the connector safely without the key and connect it to another e-scooter. The fast charger offers up to 15 km of range in a charging time of 10 minutes and the latest update will make the Ather Grid more readily available for several users. Ather’s public charging network is free of cost for users till March 31, 2023. The company has over 1,000 public chargers across the country and aims to install over 2,500 charging stations by the end of this year.