Electric vehicle (EV) maker Ather Energy launches the third-generation variant of its flagship scooter Ather 450x, with a bigger battery, new tyres, software changes and minor updates like newer mirrors and a bigger boot space.

The new vehicle will be priced at Rs. 155,657 ex-showroom in Bengaluru, as per reports.

It will cost Rs. 5,000 more than the previous version of 450x and will be available at all Ather experience centers from today.

According to reports, the bigger battery will increase the certified range of the scooter to 146 kilometres (km) with a real-life range of 105 km, up from 85 km in the current variant.

The new battery size of 3.7 kWh is 25 percent bigger than the previous version but is smaller than competitor Ola Electric's flagship S1 Pro's 3.9 kWh battery size, giving it a range of up to 200 km after the latest software update.

Range is the distance an EV can travel in a single charge and is a key determinant while buying an EV. Range depends on the size of the battery pack, which is made up of lithium-ion cells.

Currently, the government provides Rs. 15,000 per kWh as part of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing (of Hybrid) and Electric Vehicles (FAME) scheme, which has a Rs. 10,000 crore corpus.

According to Ola, the brands that are building that kind of range in their battery packs are making terrible product decisions. The minute the subsidy stops you can’t sell the product. A true range of 180 km is going to cost you Rs. 70,000 more just in material costs. So, it is a stupid idea. In fact, 2.9 kWh for the longest time because every data point told us that it is enormously successful, and this is exactly what people need. Then as the market grows, realized that for lots of new EV buyers psychologically 100 km is too important to cross.