The tweet has gone viral – Ather service team has called the owner and offered free service if the tweet is deleted
Apart from fuel cost savings, EVs also promise lower maintenance costs. This is often attributed to fewer moving parts of EVs in comparison to ICE vehicles. However, user experiences reveal that EVs too can have high maintenance costs in specific cases.
Ather owner gets Rs 8,000 maintenance bill
With a maintenance bill of Rs 8,000, one would expect that the scooter could have faced some major damage due to an accident. However, that is not the case. According to the owner, there is no damage to the scooter of any sort. It seems like the issue has occurred due to the normal wear and tear of the scooter. Although EVs have fewer moving parts, they do have components like electric motor, fans and pulleys that are susceptible to damage.
In this case, the Ather electric scooter is around 4 years old. It has clocked 13,398 km on the odometer. In normal circumstances and in most cases, major repairs are not usually required for two-wheelers at this stage. This is applicable for both electric and ICE scooters.
So, when someone gets a maintenance bill of Rs 8,000, it is bound to create a shock. Ather is known for its reliability and high quality. And when top brands do not match expectations, it creates significant disappointment.
Charging error P014
According to the Ather owner, his scooter’s charging stopped and a P014 error started to show. At the service centre, multiple problems were identified. The warranty applicable on the affected parts was only for one year. As a result, the owner had no option other than to get the costly parts replaced.
The owner is also disappointed due to the fact that he was among the early adopters of Ather electric scooter. Another point noted by the owner is that he has been trying to get the Ather Service pack for the last two months. But he wasn’t able to do that. If the service pack was active, the maintenance bill would have been lower.
Response from other users
In response to the alleged inflated maintenance bill, other users have shared their personal experiences. Some say that the high maintenance cost is a real issue with first-gen Ather scooters. One user, who was among the first 100 pre-order list, says that his scooter’s mid assembly was replaced. There was no option to repair it. As a result, the replacement cost came at Rs 16,000.
Another user has shared a screenshot, showing his Ather scooter clocking 27,392 km. The owner says that he has paid only Rs 6,646 on maintenance costs. Some car users have also shared screenshots, saying that their car service bill is less than the Rs 8,000 charged by Ather service centre. Even the said Ather electric scooter owner tweeted that his 10 year old car has a lower service bill.
This is not the first time an Ather owner has shared their disapproval over high service costs. Earlier too a similar situation had arose when an Ather electric scooter owner had tweeted that the service cost of his Ather is same as his Kia EV6.
Source: Bike - rushlane.com
