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.

However, going forward, with Ather Grid chargers, the connector will become automatically unlocked from the scooter once the 80% cut-off has been reached, meaning that another user can disconnect the charger from the charged scooter (without needing the key) and connect it to their scooter instead (provided their state-of-charge is below 80%).