Ather 450X vs Ola S1 Pro Features: Which Is The Smarter Buy?

The Ather 450X and the Ola S1 Pro are two of the most premium electric scooters in the market right now. Both offer sporty performance and agile handling, making them suitable for everyday commuting and having fun in the city at the same time. But what about the features on offer? Let’s take an in-depth look at which scooter offers the most extensive list that also increases its convenience quotient?:

The Ather 450X offers a 7-inch TFT touchscreen display that has a speedometer, odometer, trip meter, and range. It also shows battery percentage, average speed, clock, and other regular readouts. It has Bluetooth connectivity for calls and SMS alerts, over-the-air updates, and music controls. It also shows your phone’s WhatsApp messages and live cricket scores. The console offers Google Maps navigation, and the destinations can be set either directly from the screen on the scooter or your phone’s Google Maps application. The console’s layout is very clear, well laid out, and easy to read even under harsh conditions. 

The Ola S1 Pro has a same-sized display and shows all the same things. The console also offers different visual styles for the dashboard. However, Ola uses its own Ola Maps instead of Google Maps. A party trick up Ola’s sleeve is its apron-mounted speakers. Both scooters get a side-stand alert, which switches off the motor or doesn’t allow you to start the scooter if the scooter is leaning on the side-stand. Moving on from the consoles, as electric scooters, both of them are heavily equipped with rideability and convenience features. In the Ather 450X, the Multi Mode Traction Control aims to stop the rear wheel from spinning out of control when being ridden over gravel surfaces.

The Emergency Stop Signal flashes the tail light when brakes are applied hard and suddenly, warning other riders behind you in critical scenarios. The Fall Safe feature automatically switches off the motor in case of a fall, and in case your scooter is being stolen or towed away, a notification is sent to your phone.  The Ola S1 Pro also offers some essential safety features like CBS (combined braking system) for safer braking, switchable traction control, hill-hold assist and fall detection. It also has a waterproof battery, sturdy build quality, strong parking stands and app-based lock functions that improve overall security and rider confidence.

Both scooters get regenerative braking that recharges while coasting or braking. In the Ather 450X, an additional Magic Twist feature lets you have additional regenerative braking by twisting the throttle in the opposite direction. The Ola S1 Pro doesn’t have that feature, but lets you select the amount of regen available with three different modes: Low, Medium, and High, and also the throttle sensitivity with similarly named modes. Both scooters offer cruise control that lets you ride the scooter at a set speed without any throttle input.

Other features available on the scooters include the hill-hold assist, which stops the scooter from rolling back on a slope between the moment you let go of the brakes and roll the throttle. This is a very convenient feature to have, especially in high-traffic scenarios, and it works seamlessly in the 450X. The Reverse mode allows you to simply twist the throttle and reverse out of a tight parking situation. The scooters also get self-cancelling indicators and USB charging ports. 

There are no storage options on the front apron on both scooters. When it comes to underseat storage, the Ola S1 Pro has a bigger 34-litre boot, whereas the 450X has a 22-litre underseat storage space. This increases the everyday convenience quotient of the S1 Pro. One important thing to note here is that on the 450X, the aforementioned convenience features are only available as part of the AtherStack Pro package, which costs an additional Rs 16,999 - Rs 20,000 on top of the scooter’s ex-showroom price. In the S1 Pro, all features are available as standard.  

Both the Ather 450X and Ola S1 Pro are neck and neck in terms of the features offered. The lists for both of them are very extensive but the S1 Pro gets the edge in terms of the total amount of features offered on paper. It is probably the most feature-loaded electric scooter in India, and with the bigger underseat boot, it helps with the everyday convenience of going shopping with the scooter. 

The Ather 450X is Rs 30,000 more expensive than the S1 Pro and offers a few fewer features. But the 450X offers much better throttle calibration, and the features it does offer work seamlessly all the time, which we experienced during our long-term reviews of the scooter. The reliability of the features improves the scooter’s everyday livability aspect. 

Here is our long term report on the Ather 450X.