It might not feel like it, but the Ather Energy story is now a full decade old. The plucky Bengaluru-based startup – which began its journey back in 2013 from IIT Madras – needed nearly 5 years to roll out its first commercial offering, the S340 electric scooter, which has since evolved in all the right ways to metamorphose into the present 450 series of e-scooters. And I say the right ways, because in the five years following the introduction of its first model, Ather has produced and shipped more than 2 lakh scooters to customers all over India who chose to place their faith in a still-young brand. To celebrate the success of the product that has placed it firmly in the mix right at the top of India’s premium scooter market, Ather has rolled out what it calls the best version of its best electric scooter yet – the aptly-named 450 Apex.
The Apex is designed to represent the pinnacle of the current 450 platform, according to Ather.
But, is the Apex really the best Ather you can buy, or is it just another special edition? Ather invited carandbike to Bengaluru to experience the scooter for a few laps on a go-kart track, and for a brief duration, on public roads. Here’s what I returned with.
Design-wise, the 450 Apex, unsurprisingly, doesn't break away from the 450X we've come to like over the years, but it gets a special paint scheme. This is wearing Indium Blue paint, which Ather says is one of the newest blue shades to be discovered (as recently as 2009). The paint scheme has a two-layer effect to it with a hint of lavender underneath the blue, along with a satin-type finish, which adds a premium feel to the scooter. Ather opted for contrast orange paint for the wheels, logos and the frame.
See-through panels a novel touch, but loud colour scheme may not be to everyone's tastes.
And speaking of the frame, as you may have noticed by now, the Apex has translucent side panels, which are clearer than the panels we saw first on the 450 Series 1. Despite having a frosted inner finish, they do give you a pretty good look at the orange frame, which will satisfy the secret KTM fan in you. On the whole, the Apex looks striking, but the fact that this is the only colour combination you can get feels a little limiting, and while it is eye-catching today, I can’t help but wonder if it will age as well as Ather’s other, tastefully-curated colour options. There's also a new Ather wordmark on the tail that is more prominent and looks sharper than the previous, almost-conspicuous lettering.
Instrument panel graphics updated to match the scooter's colours.
Ather has also updated the graphics on the digital cluster and this now matches the colour scheme of the scooter itself. The Apex is fitted with tyre pressure monitoring as standard (it’s an accessory on the standard 450X), and buyers will also get a special helmet with a livery to match the scooter’s.
One of the areas that Ather was keen to sharpen up the 450 Apex in was performance. And to that effect, Ather has given the scooter a slightly more powerful motor, which produces a peak 7 kW (torque remains unchanged at 26 Nm). It's not that much of a step-up from the standard 450 X (the Apex only has 0.6 kW more at full tilt), but Ather is honest enough to admit that this is about as far as the current 450 platform can be pushed, and it’s well-known by now that Ather isn’t one to gamble on safety and reliability to merely spice up the spec sheet. While it may not be immediately apparent, ride the Apex for a while and you will sense the difference the added power makes.
As you'd expect from an Ather, the 450 Apex is a ton of fun around a go-kart track.
I got to ride the Apex around the Meco go-kart track for a few laps and out on the open road for a brief period as well. The Apex feels exactly how you’d expect a 450X to behave, except this now has an evolved ride mode to make use of the added power. It's named Warp Plus, and Ather has charted out a way to provide stronger roll-on acceleration. The 0 to 40 kmph time has been slashed to 2.9 seconds, which is a near-half-second improvement on the standard 450X’s time (3.3 seconds), and from 40 to 80 kmph is where you really feel the difference, because the scooter pulls hard, making overtaking a breeze, and Ather says it will take less than four seconds to go from 40 to 80 kmph, which is pretty impressive.
Also, the Apex, at last, is an Ather that can touch 100 kmph. The 450X never really felt like it lacked power, and always seemed pretty comfortable even at around 90 kmph, but the Apex will get you to triple-digits as long as you can find an open enough stretch of road. In every other sense, this is exactly like the 450X you and I have come to enjoy riding over the years. It offers a pliant ride, feels fleet-footed and eager to change direction; there’s plenty of grip from the tyres, it holds its line well in the corners, and you will definitely have a ball of a time riding it.
Roll-on acceleration is stronger, and the Apex will eventually hit 100 kmph.
Another interesting inclusion on the Apex is advanced regenerative braking, paired with a new energy management algorithm, which Ather has dubbed ‘Magic Twist’. You basically apply negative throttle input to slow down, but on the Apex, it’s powerful enough to bring the scooter to a complete halt without requiring any brake lever inputs – regardless of the state-of-charge (SoC) of the scooter’s battery. Unlike some other two-wheelers, where regen does not kick in until SoC drops below a predefined limit, Ather is promising consistent and full regen ability with the Apex at any SoC, with any extra energy that can’t be accepted by the battery pack, being disposed off in the motor housing itself. This is enabled by Ather’s in-house motor controller, and is the primary reason why the Apex has a higher certified range than the 450X (157 km vs 150 km), despite the increase in power.
It was fun to try and ride the scooter using just the throttle on the track, but on our roads, where vehicular and pedestrian movement is shockingly unpredictable, you cannot rely on Magic Twist to provide you the final degree of control that the levers do. You also have the option to dial down the intensity of regenerative braking, or to switch Magic Twist off entirely. While it’s a cool feature to have, using it in conjunction with the brake levers will take some getting used to in daily riding. Ather says it sees most riders using Magic Twist instead of braking the traditional way in the future, and perhaps it is an innovation that needs more time to be better understood in practice, before being fully (and widely) embraced.
The Apex genuinely represents the pinnacle of the 450 platform the way we've seen it for years, this scooter delivers performance exactly how you would expect it to. But it comes at a pretty steep price – Rs 1.89 lakh (ex-showroom), which makes it about Rs 22,000 costlier than a similarly-equipped 450X 3.7 kWh. At this end of the spectrum, the Apex is not eligible for any kind of subsidies, and it will cost roughly Rs 2 lakh on-road. Even for a premium scooter, that’s a lot of money. And in all honesty, at this price, I feel Ather could probably have done more to make the Apex buyer feel a little more special. Aside from the funky paint job, see-through side panels, advanced regen and the pinch of added power, the scooter doesn’t feel too far removed from the regular 450X. That is less a criticism for the Apex, and more a compliment for just how well-rounded the bread-and-butter model is.
The Apex's price tag makes the standard 450X look like great value.
If you’re a fan of the Ather story, enjoy the 450X and have the money to spare, the Apex will be a purchase you will invariably be happy with, because it is indeed the best representation (yet) of Ather’s engineering capabilities. If you want to get your hands on one of these, you will need to move fast, as the Apex will only be in production for about 8 to 9 months, and Ather will only make it in limited numbers. But, even if you fail to snag an Apex, you have nothing to worry about, for the standard 450X is just as good to ride and is nearly as quick, all while staying true to Ather’s original ethos of bringing a quality e-scooter experience closer to the masses.
