Fuel prices are off the charts, touching as high as Rs 84-91 for a litre of petrol. It raises a concern among the petrol-powered vehicle users that when and where this price hike will take a rest. However, those who use an automatic scooter for their daily commuting needs can actually save around Rs 15,000 every year on fuel expenses by opting for an electric scooter.
If we are considering a total daily commute distance of 40 kilometres when riding in a metro city, the cumulative travel in a year, considering six-days/week, is around 12,500 kilometres.
An average petrol-powered scooter returns a fuel efficiency of around 45-50kmpl. That means around 250-litre of petrol used in a year which costs between Rs 21,000 and Rs 25,000 (according to current petrol prices in various cities).
Now, the average running cost of a modern electric scooter is around Rs 10 for 70 kilometres. According to this, the fuel cost of an electric scooter will be around Rs 1,800-2,000 for a year.
Most of the new electric scooters powered by a lead acid battery come with at least 2 years warranty on the battery. Now, let’s assume your battery fails on the third year. The replacement cost of a lead-acid battery is between Rs 12,000 and Rs 18,000. Taking the maximum value of the replacement, the annual running cost of the electric scooter becomes Rs 8,000 (including the electricity cost).
In the case of Lithium-ion battery powered scooters, the cost of replacement is much higher but the batteries have a much better lifecycle (at least 4-5 year) as well. Manufacturers also provide a longer warranty period on lithium-ion batteries.
According to Ather Energy, the batteries of its ‘450’ model are designed to last for 50,000 kilometres, post which we expect the battery capacity to be at 70 per cent. So consumers can still continue to use the scooters with a degradation in the range which will be more than 40 kilometres. So, we can set a replacement period of 5 years in this case.
Based on the current prices of lithium-ion cells and government taxes, etc a replacement battery costs approximately Rs 35,000, according to Ather, which is expected to go down further in the coming years. So, the overall annual running cost, in that case, will remain almost the same for both types of batteries.
Now we can clearly see that the annual running cost of an electric scooter is Rs 13,000-17,000 lesser as compared to that of a petrol powered scooter. Which means the average savings per year can be around Rs 15,000 which is alongside your contribution to a cleaner environment.
