This step has been taken in an effort to reduce wait times for others at Ather’s public chargers.
In an app notification to its customers, Ather Energy has announced that it will be introducing an 80% charging cut-off for its Ather Grid public chargers. It says that this move has been taken in an attempt to reduce wait times for other users at the chargers, and in the interest of ‘fair usage for everyone’.
As part of one of its recent Ather Stack software updates, the 450X e-scooter also received an ‘Optimal Charging’ feature that allows you to cut-off charging at 80% when using a home charger. However, this feature is optional, while the 80% cut-off at Ather Grid public chargers will be mandatory.
We are currently running a 450X Gen 3 e-scooter as part of our long-term test fleet, and once the charger is connected to the scooter and the key is removed, the charger is effectively locked into the scooter. Undocking the charger once charging is completed requires the use of the scooter key.
At the moment, it is unclear whether the Ather Grid chargers will become automatically undocked once the 80% cut-off is reached, although it’s quite likely that this will be the case, since the aim here is to reduce waiting time for others. We have reached out to Ather for clarification regarging this, and are waiting to hear back at the time of publishing this article.