With Ather’s ACDC (Ather Community Day Celebration) event fast approaching, more and more details of its latest ride, the Rizta, continue to come in. The new electric scooter from the Bengaluru-based company has been the talk of the town recently because of its more family-oriented features, unlike the 450X. Here’s what else we know about it.
The Rizta is going to be a more conventionally designed scooter with a wide front apron and a large seat. In fact, in its latest promotional video, The Great Khali, the former WWE wrestling star, is seen annoyed with conventional bike seats until finally, with his signature knockout slap, finds the seat he wants.
Of course, the scooter itself isn’t shown in the video, but a spy picture was taken of a test mule being ridden by two adults along with some luggage on the rear seat as well as on the floorboard.
Another feature that Ather has been highlighting is storage. No specifics have been announced yet, but while Ather’s 450X offers 22 litres of space, its rival from Ola, the S1, offers close to 34 litres of under-seat storage, so it’s safe to assume we could see something similar on the Rizta.
On the powertrain front, we expect the Rizta to be powered by a unit similar to that which does duty on the 450 Apex. We do know that it will employ a concealed belt final drive, the same as on the Apex, but more details should be unveiled soon. What we would like to see is Ather’s Magic Twist feature.
This allows the rider to twist the throttle control on the handlebar in the opposite direction for regenerative braking, thereby allowing for almost single-handed use (don’t do that, though, use the brakes for stopping). The conventional braking seems to be handled by a disc at the front on a 12-inch wheel, but we aren’t sure whether the rear brake is a disc or a drum.
Some other features include USB charging, ride modes, fast charging, navigation, smartphone connectivity and a new smart accessory, details of which we do not have yet. We have to wait to see whether the Rizta will get Ather’s DeepView segmented display or the full-colour touchscreen display.
The Ather Rizta is set to make its debut on April 6 at the ACDC event. When launched, the scooter will go up against the likes of the Ola S1, TVS iQube as well as the Bajaj Chetak. At around Rs 1.35 lakh, the price too should put it in direct competition with these electric scooters.
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