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-   -   Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/motorbikes/244398-ola-s1-electric-scooter-review-10.html)

Went in to the test ride with low expectations due to all the glitchy reviews....but was completely blown away. My 2-wheels ride is an Activa 6G and it does not come anywhere close to the experience of this Rockstar!

My first impressions of the Ola S1 Pro are:

Build Quality - par for the course
Ride Quality - Excellent (seat does help the ride)
Powertrain - Outstanding performance. Beta Software and Laggy ride by wire configuration apart
Styling - Excellent and appealing
Sales and After Sales - Remains a mystery

Looking forward to delivery of my Midnight Blue S1 Pro in Jan/Feb 2022! Definitely excited!

I went for the test ride as planned today. In one word, I am sold on it.

It rides and handles as good as any scooter, actually better in my opinion. Ride was good for the road I took it on (Bangalore highway). I had to ride slow and negotiate a few speedbreakers while exiting the hotel to the highway. It handled them good enough. I was given a S1 Pro scooter and all modes - Normal/Sports/Hyper - worked. Sports mode itself is addictive. Braking is good. It felt almost like a finished product,not like a beta version.

The "throttle going dead when the brake is pressed" is not as big an issue as I thought. After the first few minutes, I got adjusted to it and hardly noticed it thereafter. It might be an issue if one stops and starts on an incline, but that is where the hill hold might come in. The lag between letting go of the brake, twisting the throttle and the motor responding is hardly a second in my opinion. After the initial weird feeling, one hardly notices it. It is not a deal breaker. Apart from the feeling that my folded knees were higher up when compared to riding a Suzuki Access, and the slightly weird side stand, I did not notice anything amiss. The seat is like a sofa! The storage space is big enough, it does accommodate two full face helmets. They said if you want to carry the charger, then one helmet and one charger. The reverse gear is fun to use, but is it really necessary in a scooter! They said something about the hill hold being functional now, but I could not check it anywhere. Cruise control is not yet functional, but another unnecessary gimmick in a scooter. I was told a center stand and side foot rest will be offered as accessories.

The distance allowed was a U turn immediately after exiting the hotel, go till the second signal from there, take a U turn again and come back to the hotel - about 4 km. The road was free and I was hitting 70-80 in no time. It won't be an understatement to say the ride is exhilarating!

My BIL and his wife had done the test ride an hour before me. His opinion was pretty much the same as mine. But his wife who is 5'2", did say that she uses brake/throttle together during U turns and found it uncomfortable with the throttle not responding while braking. And the side stand uncomfortable to use. But they are not deal breakers for her either.

I would rate the build quality as good, though it seems to be FRP. Paint work is excellent. The scooter looks attractive and at the same time mature, instead of the (IMO) toy like look of Ather. It somehow reminds me of a Vespa. Also, the front suspension is not a single down rod as I thought. There is some additional linkage connected to the chassis behind that rod. Anyone going for a test ride, please bend down, take a photo behind the front mudguard and post it here! Also, despite many people taking test rides continuously one after the other, none of the TD scooters seemed to have any heating issues, like what some Bangalore BHPians felt after their test ride.

I am not cancelling my booking. I am not buying it immediately either. I will wait for a month after the first deliveries take place and user reports come in.

Went to see the Ola scooter in person with my dad, he's the ultimate beneficiary.

We're very impressed and going ahead with our purchase. They were quite stubborn on the limited test drives, so only one of us could do it. My dad took the honours and myself pillion.

PROS
- Well built and put together. Some flimsy plastic bits and panel gaps. But no creaks and rattles, scooter felt solid.
- Liked the ride. Slightly stiff, but a decent balance between ride & handling
- Good underseat storage
- Superb touchscreen display, intuitive
- Impressive features list, albeit some gimmicky
- Looks even better in person, attractive design
- Good horn
- Great brakes
- Easy to replace wheels, amateur friendly
- Terrific VFM
- Spacious seats

CONS
- Beta testing comments by staff not exactly confidence inspiring. The staff were unsure about many things like accessories, side footrest etc.
- Brake throttle cut off feature, will take time getting used to, especially elderly riders
- Wide rear seats mean that even tall pillion passengers can't touch feet on the ground
- Heavy scooter, although not an issue when the scooter is moving
- Power port flap not lockable
- Side stand feels flimsy
- Could be challenging ownership experience for the not soo tech savvy, younger generation will find it a breeze.
- Risks related to new manufacturer and product.

We have a considerable solar power production capacity, saving us easily 20k every year on fuel alone, it's sort of a no brainer. An electric scooter was always going to join the family garage, we'll check out the Ather again tomorrow.

So far OLA S1 pro is the primary candidate.

When I went for test ride at Salarpuria Symbiosis, Bannerghatta road, the staff said that only one person can do test ride with another person as pillion. Myself & my wife was allowed to go outside premises for only one short spin. But we took two rounds exchanging rides. No one will notice or object and so you guys do not hesitate to take many rounds & two riders also try out to the ride.

Since you're going to be trying out both one after the other, a head-to-head comparison from your point of view would be much appreciated. I think for most people it'll be down to one of these two vehicles, the rest of the e bikes in the market today seem to be either Chinese import kits or seem to exist only on paper so far!

(Thanks in advance for your input!)

So today I finally had the time to experience the Ola S1 Pro. After reading reviews posted by BHPians, my expectations were quite low. I also had my doubts regarding the plastic chassis construction of the vehicle. Here are my observations; and the sequence of events which took place in the test ride campaign.

The event was organised at WEWORK Kondapur. Parking was bad as I had to park my Activa outside the building along with a bunch of other vehicles. This was kind of blocking traffic to a small extent. I had heard that there was paid parking available inside the building while we were leaving.



Once you enter inside the building, you are greeted by the Ola sales staff. You have to fill up a form and register yourself in the first counter. Registration is nothing but taking your name, mobile number and a photograph of your license. Once that is done, you are guided to the two black scooters behind the counter. They are not visible in this photograph. After registration, you are guided towards these two black scooters for a live demo of all the functions and features available in the scooter. Funnily for us, we were guided outside to the waiting area immediately after registration, thus skipping the demo. We took the demo after the test ride, but left in the middle as another person had briefed the exact same stuff before testride near the waiting area.

I couldn’t click a lot of pictures, as there were a lot of people waiting and a lot of background noise was getting captured. The test ride was very short. 3-4 rounds around the office space; my estimation is 200m per round. They weren’t allowing people outside the office space, and the reaon stated by them was that there is a huge traffic jam outside and customers going out are returning only after 30 minutes. And due to this they had to bring in other vehicles from the parking. They offered an extra round for us though. I didn’t really feel like complaining about this, as there were indeed a lot of people waiting outside. But some of them did get a chance to take a spin outside the office space at the time we were doing ours.

Neverthless, my friend wanted to do the test ride first. He sure loved the vehicle. He says he will pick this one instead of the Ather. Both of us have prebooked on the day Ola opened prebookings.





Me and my buddy were the only ones who had paid 499 and reserved the scooter. Majority of the folks who came to the event had paid 20k and some of them even paid the full amount. This sure speaks about the trust Mr. Bhavish Agarwal and Team Ola have built among citizens.

My buddy took 3-4 rounds, and came back mighty impressed. He tried the normal mode in the first round, sport mode in the second and hyper in the third.

After him, it was my turn to have a spin on this Netherlands brainchild scooter with an Indian badge. I had very low expectations on this. My observations:
• The side stand was very flimsy. This needs to be improved for sure on the production models.

• Range: I remember seeing 130km in normal mode. Didn’t really focus on the range. Will do this next time when I get to ride it in the open road.

• Indicators: I absolutely hated the indicator integration on this. EV makers please take note of this. Stick to traditional indicator stalks. Firstly, there were so many buttons on each side you get confused to press which button for what function. Definitely confusing for a new person trying out the scooter for the first time. Maybe after sometime, one might get used to it. My preference will be the traditional indicator stalk.

• Horn: Typical electric scooter horn. Good for the purpose. Typical in the sense electric scooter horns sound a bit different compared to IC scooter horns. Ather, Ola and Pure Energy Horns were really different compared to Activa, Pep Plus and Access horns. Also, one thing that I had noticed was that the horn doesn’t work immediately after pressing. Takes half a second to work. Will take some time to get used to.

• Headlight: Superb headlight at least from the looks of it. My eyes got blinded while others were taking a ride. I do not have any complaints in this area. Same with the taillight and numberplate lights, super bright and functional. Even the indicators were well suited for the purpose.

• Cruise Control: Didn’t get a chance to try this as it was a very short test ride.

• Reverse: You have to twist the throttle the other side to use reverse mode. This was integrated in a nice manner. The opposite side throttle play was very less, which is a good thing. You don’t have to twist the entire throttle to use reverse mode. But will take some time getting used to.

• I also tried the three modes namely Normal, Sport and Hyper. Normal is useful for usual commuting duties, Sports is useful for those who are running late and Hyper is useful in your low days. Hyper mode is really addictive, If I end up buying this I might spend most of my time in Hyper mode itself. The pull is addictive, will definitely bring a smile in your face during your low times.

• Brakes: Hugely impressed in this department. The scooter stops with no hesitation what so ever. Inspires a lot of confidence. I however wished they provided ABS as well to further enhance confidence.

• Tyres: Can’t really comment on this but I assume it will be more than enough for your usual commuting duties.

• Handling and Ride: Even this is something that I can’t really comment on, as the road we did the test ride was smooth. It was a parking space, so will reserve my comments on this once I get to ride the scooter on the open road.

• Charging: Honestly speaking, I felt the all of the salesguys were clueless about the charging network. When I asked them about the charger, they replied it comes with a portable charger; and when I asked them where it was, they replied in the cellar where others scooter were being charged. I however did get to see the charger somewhere else. Couldn’t click pictures due to the crowd. It was a white colored charger. Decently big in size. I have no idea about its charging speed and power consumption.

• Build Quality: This is one area where I was pleasantly surprised. The build quality of the scooters were very good. One or two areas had a flimsy build and cheap materials used( charging port flap), but I strongly feel the production version will have this minor grievances sorted out. The paint quality was superb. I saw Black, Matt Black, Matt Grey, Matt Dark Blue and Sky Blue.

• Power and Acceleration: Adequate for most, good for many. But I still prefer Ather’s warp mode.

• Mirrors are far superior to Ather’s mirrors. They offer a good view of what’s behind.

• Someone tried the Bluetooth speakers as well. When I wanted to try it out, that I was told only one scooter had that functionality and someone had taken it for a ride. Don’t know if it was true or utter salesboy laziness of connecting his phone to play an audio.

• The event was well organised. I hope they do give longer test rides in their next test ride events.

• Seat: Huge and supremely comfortable. No complaints over here. I didn’t get to see the under seat storage, but my buddy did get to see it and he said it was huge. Two helmets will be an easy fit.

• Keyless entry is a bad idea. Ola should strongly consider offering physical keys.

• Throttle cut off during acceleration is calibrated in a friendly manner. Might not be a problem once one gets used to it. However, I prefer to not have this feature if given a chance.

Some clicks of the scooter and me with it :)












Sorry for the poor quality of the above photo, I clicked this one in a hurry.



Overall, I feel Ola has huge potential to turn the market towards themselves. IMO, they should iron out those minor inconveniences and give realistic delivery timelines and also establish their promised charging infra just in time.

I still stand by my opinion though;
Want a fast but practical electric scooter immediately? Go for the Ather.
Will do with a slow speed electric scooter? Go for Pure Energy.
If you can wait, Ola sure is worth it.

Sorry for the long post.
Saikishor

Ola Electric delays S1 Electric Scooter Purchase Window once again, will now begin in January 2022.



Source

Had a chance to test ride the OLA S1 Pro today. Most points are covered and will point out only what I felt. My friend has booked the scooter.

1. Design wise it is pretty unique and will catch eyeballs
2. Good range of colors unlike Ather
3. Brisk Acceleration, however, part throttle response not to my liking. Of course they can/may improve this. Ather feels well sorted in this department
4. Brakes are good, but Ather has better feel and bite.
5. Build quality, fit and finish has a long way to go.
6. Switchgear has too much of a rubbery feel to my liking
7. Good boot space.
8. Love the headlight design
9. Usable rear view mirrors unlike the pathetic ones on the Ather.
10. Good range advertised, Real life usage needs to be seen
11. No flat board foot well. The hump in the middle can be deal breaker if you intend to use the scooter to carry luggage of varying sizes n shapes.
12. Primary user (more like admin) and secondary users feature. Secondary user features can be restricted by the admin.
13. Charging time for the pro variant is around 6.5 hours (as per the person giving demo). No fast chargers or grid like Ather currently.
14. I felt the handle bar is placed a little too high to my liking.

A few pics that I took when I visited the place.





That's my friend test riding it



I will wait for a few months to see how this scooter goes.

(Since we know at least someone from Ola is monitoring the thread) - Hey Ola, by now you should have picked up the trend in most of these reviews - clueless sales staff, no parking at the test ride venues, and limited/short test rides with stubborn staff insisting on that.

These are relatively easy fixes (unlike the software or other product glitches)- just train your staff better!

A test ride is more than just the product, it begins when the potential customer is trying to park and get into your venue. A lot is riding on this launch and a lot of people have chosen to have faith in the product even without seeing it. Hope that is important enough to the company to fix these relatively minor issues to begin with!

Of what I gather from all your test drive experiences, this vehicle could be one of those cases, where we would be better off buying from the first lot batches. Solid build, good materials, hardy electronics and the works. Better before the famed Indian good sense prevails and compromises in materials, processes, etc sets in. I'm also basing this on my experiences as an ex cab app user of Ola - How it went from awesome to loathsome!
But hey its just my opinion, Mr Agarwal B might just throw us a pleasant surprise with this Scooter.

I also had a chance to test ride Ola S1 Pro. I was little bit negative about it because of the media reviews and was about to go for Ather 450X, But after the test drive i have decided to wait for Ola. The hyper mode is extremely quick. Throttle response is good and not jerky like Bajaj Chetak. The underseat storage is very big. Also i saw scooter which was 99% charged and it was showing 156KM range, which is the main reason i am going ahead with Ola.

I want to buy Ola Scooter in Assam. Assam government recently announced subsidy on 2 wheeler EVs upto Rs. 20,000, so can anyone here tell me how to claim the subsidy and what is the entire buying process?

Website shows delivery to my address, how they deliver the scooter? Thanks in advance. :)

Visited the Ola scooter Test drive. Happy with the event organized.

As all our TEAM-BHP friends have already commented on their observations, pretty much i would agree on them. Few things which OLA could not comment was on what is the mitigation when vehicle malfunctions as it is controlled by software and we know it could go wrong at any time, even during vehicle running. Safety is yet to be envisaged keeping in mind the intelligent people around who find new ways to vandalize or steal or hack your vehicle. Sales and After sales is still a mystery to be unraveled. I was told that Service, like Sales, will be done at the location of the scooter. A service personal will be appointed to address on-premise. For any major issues that could not be addressed at the location, it would be taken to OLA Facility and returned in one day (Skeptical).





Cheers

Raghav

Looks like we are at the threshold of a new direction in two wheeler motoring in India. Mass market transportation is undergoing a change, with technology.

Good times to live, indeed!

I have a query guys, what if OLA misses out on its promised delivery by 31st December in Maharashtra for our bike! ( Definitely a probable event) Will we still get the flame 2 subsidy which was deducted while making the final payment ? If not this is a massive 29k affair I don’t want to get into.