Bajaj Chetak 3501 vs Ather Rizta S 3.7kWh: The Best Premium Family Scooter Is…

Say you want an electric scooter, but you want top-of-the-line stuff. More than 150km of range, all the features you can think of and an overall premium feel. So, we’re putting the Bajaj Chetak 3501 against the Ather Rizta S 3.7kWh. Here’s which one of the two you should go for: 

Price & Variants

Prices mentioned above ex-showroom Bengaluru

• We’d have to call this a draw because the difference between the scooters’ prices isn’t significant enough for you to make your buying decision off of it. 

• Yes, while the Ather Rizta costs slightly lower, it also doesn’t come with a lot of features and to unlock them, you’ll have to buy the Ather Connect pack which isn’t exactly cheap. But more about that in the features section.

Dimensions & Design 

Image for representational purpose 

• In terms of design, they take completely different approaches. The Ather electric scooter looks more modern and if you want something sharper and more period correct, the Rizta S is the one to get. 

• But if you’re a sucker for retro, there’s nothing quite like the Chetak in our market as of now. Bajaj has designed the scooter beautifully and if your parents owned a Chetak back in the day, chances are that they’ll love the way the electric Chetak looks. 

Features & Safety

• Funnily, while both scooters aren’t cheap, a lot of their useful features are paywalled. Important features like hill hold are hidden behind a paid subscription for both scooters and at this price point, we would’ve liked to see it as standard. 

• The Chetak has at least reverse mode as standard, something that should add to the practicality. 

• As for the Ather, bits like hill hold and all of the app connectivity features are hidden behind the Ather Connect pack. 

Motor, Battery, Performance, And Range 

Image for representational purpose 

• The Bajaj Chetak 3501 and the Rizta S are both family scooters, so none of them have performance which will excite you, like say the Ather 450X. Both have enough power to get around town and make overtakes easy. That said, if your everyday commutes have a highway bit on them, the Rizta S feels just a bit more relaxed. 

• With a bigger battery and motor output, the Rizta has more performance as well as range. That said, the difference in the numbers isn’t significant enough and the real world range will still be very close. 

• One difference though, is in their suspension setups. Unfortunately, Ather softened the 450X’s suspension only by a little bit and then plonked it onto the Rizta. So while the Rizta is definitely more comfortable than the 450 series, it’s still not as comfortable as a family scooter should be. The Chetak does a better job of keeping the bumps at bay. 

Verdict 

Apart from the paywalled features, they both justify their price fairly well with their high range numbers and premium-looking TFT consoles. That said, if we had to pick the better family scooter, the Chetak might edge out the Rizta by a little margin thanks to its better suspension setup.

If you’re on the younger side and are ready to put up with the firmer suspension for the additional fun that the Rizta has, we would get it!

Rivals

• The Rizta S 2.9kWh’s slightly firmer setup might make you want to buy the Chetak over the Rizta.
• The iQube 2.2kWh is more fun to ride, whereas Chetak is much more commute oriented.
• Chetak has old school charm while iQube S is modern looking.
• The Chetak would be our pick over the S1X given Ola scooters’ lack of reliability in the recent past.
• You should pick the Chetak 3501 over the Ola S1 Pro for being the more dependable, reliable scooter of the two. 
• With the VX2 Plus’ removable batteries, charging the scooter is made a lot easier if you don’t have a charging point in your society 
• Those looking for a more well-rounded and modern-looking scooter can consider the Vida V2 Pro over the Chetak. 
• The Chetak is the more comfortable of the two but if you want a scooter with a lot of space, the River Indie is the one to get. 
• The Chetak 3501 is better than the Ampere Nexus in pretty much all aspects.