Ather Rizta

While Ather's innings began with the svelte and purposeful 450X, the Rizta, which has been in the making for more than two years, is Ather's idea of what an electric scooter for the average Indian family should be like. 

It may not be as compact and edgy looking as the 450 series, but the Rizta shows that a family scooter need not look boring and drab. It may not have been a bad idea to draw inspiration, but the Rizta doesn't look like a larger 450X, and that's a good thing.  

The horizontal headlight cluster, while conventional, has interesting depth thanks to the frosted-effect DRLs. It does look a little bulky in profile, but the wraparound tail light breaks the monotony of the tail section, and the contrast white patch on the side panel is also a cool touch. The dual-tone paint schemes are eye-catching, and to my eyes, the Rizta looks a lot cooler than the TVS iQube, Bajaj Chetak and the Ola S1 Air. 

Featuring a similar motor setup to the 450 series, the Rizta retains the part-aluminium construction as well, which helps keep its weight to 119 kg, but has a larger, tubular rear subframe. It doesn't take long to notice that the Rizta is a proper Ather, but not necessarily in all the ways we've come to expect. 

From a performance point of view, the Rizta is more or less what I expected it to be. This is after all a family scooter, so outright performance has been dialed down compared to the Ather 450 X. Peak output on this is 4.3 kW and yes, you can feel the difference. That being said, this is still a reasonably peppy scooter. I had a chance to take it up Nandi Hills and that is where its Ather DNA came to the fore. The Rizta can handle itself pretty well. It's got great grip in the corners. It feels confident even at higher speeds. 

That being said, it does feel like it is lacking power and you can't help but get the feeling that this scooter is reminding you that it is an Ather, but that you are a family man. 

If you bought this one as standard, this scooter comes with just a single ride mode which is zip. If you opt for the pro pack, you also get the smart eco ride mode which promises higher range for some reduced performance that I feel is a trade off that's not worth making. Because smart Eco on multiple occasions when I was riding today tried to bring my speed down, even when I was trying to accelerate. And I found that to be a little bit risky. And on the whole, the difference in range doesn't seem to be that high. So it just feels better to leave the Rizta in zip mode. 

Swinging a leg over the Rizta and it's a familiar and comfortable space to be the dash itself is something we've seen before on the 450 series. The switches are the same. The grips feel fairly high quality, but it does feel a step down from something like the Chetak premium, which is excellently put together. The Rizta’s seat height is 780 mm. The footboard is spacious and the 900 mm-long seat has got a lot of room, so you can slide back if you want to and it will be a really comfortable riding position if you have a pillion and they have some luggage with them, even that will be able to be accommodated pretty comfortably. And even the pillion backrest is a useful addition. However, you should remember that the base Rizta does not get this.  

You've got 34 litres of under seat storage space. There are a couple of bag hooks, but I do wish the base of the under seat storage space was flat because right now it's not and that sort of limits its practicality. 

From a features perspective, the Rizta gets something previously seen on only the 450 Apex – Magic Twist, which enables riders to come to a full stop by merely applying negative throttle input. Also part of the package is Skid Control, which Ather promises will prevent the rear wheel from slipping on low-traction surfaces.  

One of the things that's missing from the Rizta, and it's puzzling to me, is a touch screen, even on the top spec model, you see this is the same seven inch TFT screen that you get on the 450 X. But on the 450 X, it is touch operated and I felt it was one of the defining features of that scooter. It really added to the riding experience. Here, Ather has curiously chosen to drop the touch functionality of the screen. So now you can control it using the joystick, but it does feel like you're going through a few too many layers to get to the exact option you want, and the fluidity of the touch functionality is certainly missed. Ather tells us that they can add that functionality back in if needed. But I'm not so sure if this will be taken kindly by customers, especially considering the fact that there are scooters which do offer a touchscreen for the same price or even less. 

With the Rizta, you've got two battery options. One is a 2.9 kilowatt hour unit and the other is a 3.7 kilowatt hour unit. The one we have here is the 2.9 and this is the one that Ather thinks will be the sweet spot in the range. Now, speaking of range, it does seem to be a little limited on the 2.9 as I have just seen on my first ride. 

During my ride, I managed to drain the Rizta's 2.9 kWh battery from 78 per cent to 6 per cent charge. Despite having stayed in SmartEco mode for the majority of the ride and having switched to Zip mode for the ascent to Nandi hills, I could manage just under 50 kilometres using up about 72 per cent charge. Ather says the Rizta, in Zip mode, should manage 85 kilometres in real-world use, but I think it'll take switching to Smarteco more often to see that figure regularly. As for chargers, Ather will bundle a 350-watt charger for the 2.9 kWh models, and the 700-watt Duo charger for the 3.7 kWh model. 

Ather currently has over 200 Experience Centres and over 1900 fast chargers (Ather Grids) across India. 

The main rivals for the Ather Rizta include the Ola S1 range, the TVS iQube and Bajaj Chetak.

There's quite a lot to like about the Ather Rizta and that doesn't come as a surprise because its strengths are obvious. The big seat means that two-up riding will be comfortable in the city. This is typically Ather, so it feels well put together, performance is acceptable. But there are also some flaws. I really do not like the screen that has been used, partially because it doesn't have the touch functionality and partially because it is too slow and laggy. There's also another thing to consider, which is the price. Now at the launch Ather told us that the Rizta range will start at one lakh 10,000, go to one lakh 25,000 for the variant we are trying today and one lakh 45,000 for the top spec Rizta Z 3.7. 

Once you've added in the cost of the ‘Pro pack’ that enables all the software features, that means that your 2.9 kWh variants are more expensive by another ₹15,000. And the top spec variant is pricier by another ₹20,000 which means that the gap in prices of the Rizta and the 450 X is not that big and there are certain things which the 450 X clearly does better. More importantly, there are other established family electric scooters already on the market and the choices within those families are expanding. TVS added new variants to the iQube range, the iQube ST and that has a 7.0-inch touch screen and it is priced roughly in the same ballpark as the Rizta. Bajaj has also rolled out a more affordable alternative in the form of the Chetak 2901 Blue Line. So the Rizta has its task cut out. It does have its likeable qualities, but it is not a standout electric scooter.