Team-BHP - Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review

So let me get this straight. The company that
- promised to revolutionize the automotive space with 2 ground breaking EV scooters
- showcased scooters to the media without half the promised features
- kept missing delivery deadlines
- is struggling with basic QC issues
- has a production of nearly 1000 scooters with no matching deliveries pan India
- has now graciously decided to not even start production of the base model until 12 months after they have taken money from customers

In the history of the Indian automotive space, has any company knowingly taken money from customers for bookings and then a few months later said oh, too bad sucker! You will have to wait for 1 year, for production of your base model to commence?

Even if the S1 customers are 20% of Ola's bookings, cant the company meet that demand with all the nearly 1,000 units of production that they are boasting of? Or are they basically arm twisting customers to pay more and get the more expensive scooter?

How does everyone not smell a massive scam here? Remove the Ola badge and ask yourself if you would be so forgiving of a company that has promised so much, taken your money and delivered so little.

If so many people's hard earned money wasnt at stake, this would be comedic.

Not for the first time on this thread, and Im sure that this wont be the last time that I will have to post this on this thread, let me say - I cannot in good faith recommend Ola scooters.

Quote:

Originally Posted by neil.jericho (Post 5236770)

In the history of the Indian automotive space, has any company knowingly taken money from customers for bookings and then a few months later said oh, too bad sucker! You will have to wait for 1 year, for the production of your base model to commence?

We don't need to go too back into the history of the Indian automotive space for that. Bajaj Auto did much worse with their electric scooter Chetak. Bajaj launched Chetak in two variants Urbane and Premium at Rs 1.04 lakhs and Rs 1.19 lakhs respectively. They opened the bookings for both variants but they never produced any base variant Urbane and delivered to customers other than showroom display models. Even the premium variant was delayed for many months. Even worse is Bajaj increased the price of the Chetak by almost 50% in just 1 year after launch. Even those who booked early need to pay this 50% increase. They don't even provide the charger with the vehicle and customers need to buy it separately. Also, They are charging Rs 4,700 annually in the name of data charges which were not announced at launch. In the history of Indian automotive space, this never happened but nobody talked about it including you because hardly anyone cares about Chetak.

Quote:

Originally Posted by neil.jericho (Post 5236770)

How does everyone not smell a massive scam here? Remove the Ola badge and ask yourself if you would be so forgiving of a company that has promised so much, taken your money and delivered so little.

Is Ola not delivering the scooters? Are they absconding with people's money? The last time I checked there is still a cancel option and they are refunding every rupee people paid. On the other hand, Bajaj charges half the booking amount if you cancel the Chetak booking.

Companies announcing the base models and never delivering them is very common in the Indian automobile world. The dealership will say that the base variant will take 5-6 months and push the customers to go for higher variants especially for the products which are in high demand. It happened to me with my Honda City purchase in 2014.

Delays in the automobile world are very common and in the EV space, it's even more. Bajaj and TVS have decades of experience with manufacturing and supply chain management but still, they could not meet the delivery timelines of their EVs. Ather officially claimed they are operating at full capacity of 10,000 units per month and they are not even delivering 3,000 scooters per month but there is a 2-3 months delay for their scooter. It's the same or worse with Revolt as well. By the way, Ola dispatched more scooters in its first month than Bajaj Chetak and TVS iQube combined first year (2020) sales. In fact, Ola dispatched more than double that of chetak and iQube first-year sales. It's also more than Ather's annual deliveries in 2019 and 2020.

Anyway, after customer feedback, Ola has reversed their decision and now delivering locked S1 pro to all those who paid Rs 20,499 in Jan and Feb batch. They are listening to their customers unlike others (Bajaj) who import most of the components from China yet lecture the startups who are doing more inhouse manufacturing.

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Originally Posted by Electromotive (Post 5195835)

OLA vs Ather is now going to be an interesting case study.

Waiting for this.

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Originally Posted by fuzzydealhunter (Post 5195973)

As an EV owner I dont think having the same ports makes a difference. Most CCS2 chargers in India are 25kwh chargers at a minimum. I highly doubt that these smaller scooters with the puny 4kwh batteries will be able handle that kind of wattage or have the software/hardware to do the handshake.

The on board charger decides how much the vehicle can take. So there are no issues with using a higher capacity charger.

Quote:

From my experience most EV owners charge at home, this would apply to a 2 wheeler as well that has a decent range such as Ola S1 pro. The charging infrastructure is not something to worry about much in the case scooters with over 150km range. The key would be to charge at home and office if needed.

Personally on my Nexon EV I use the external chargers very rarely, mostly when on outstation trip.

That's exactly how EV's are meant to be used.

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Originally Posted by Gansan (Post 5196895)

Is it confirmed it has no side footrest for pillion? And they say it is by design and can't be remedied? Whom are they kidding! Then how are my sari clad missus and mom going to sit on the pillion? Will I even be permitted to buy a scooter in which they can never ride pillion? Perish the thought!

Firstly sitting sideways on a scooter or motorcycle is dangerous. Secondly sitting sideways wearing a saree is even more dangerous.

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I like the motor. I like the chassis. I like the performance figures. I like the looks of the scooter. The wheels and tyres look good. Why not give them to me with normal instrumentation and locks, just like the Activa or Access? I really don't want a smartphone on wheels. I certainly don't want it to talk to me! If I want to use Google maps I will use my phone on a holder.

Ather gives you this option in the 450+.

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Originally Posted by Blackbolt (Post 5199794)

Many guys at the facility were asking for saree guard and center stand. The staff suggested that accessories are under test and they will be available once the bikes starts shipping.

I don't see why these are necessary.

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For us it’s not a major mode of transport. It’s actually being bought just for fun; going to the gym; beach and running errands in and around to avoid parking hassles. One charge will take us through a month or even more. Even if it takes time for Ola team to fix an issue we won’t feel the pinch ; hence we aren’t so critical about niggles which others have pointed out.

+1 to that.

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Originally Posted by TokyoDrifter (Post 5201781)

the most prominent one being "Larger battery pack, and therefore even higher range".

That is a not so exciting upgrade.

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Originally Posted by DarthVeda (Post 5212093)

are you saying there is no engine replacement or no re-boring or no change in clutch plate or cables or [insert other parts here] in ICE vehicles?

I'm using a 20 year old Active 1st gen. I have never had to do any engine work.

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Originally Posted by Lobogris (Post 5217498)

It is very dangerous to have a child standing in the front while riding a scooter. Carrying a gas cylinder in the front is dangerous as well. Please don’t promote such dangerous practices.

+1 to that.

I have booked an Ather 450X and a Nexon EV. Eagerly waiting for both. Despite all the negatives, I still feel the OLA is better overall. Still confused whether to go ahead with the Ather or book the OLA.

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Originally Posted by sri_tesla (Post 5236923)

I wasnt aware that Bajaj never produced any units of their base Urbane Chetak. I searched online to learn more but couldnt find anything that maps to this story. I could only see some articles that said Urbane deliveries are delayed. Can you share some links to this news that you shared?

Secondly, price increases after launch are nothing new in the automobile space. Very few companies provide price protection. If customers are willing to buy a product with a 50% price hike, then good for the company, its employees and its shareholders. If customers arent willing to buy a product with a 50% price hike, then sales will naturally plummet.

Thirdly, did Bajaj promise a charger and then say that customers have to pay more? I didnt follow.

I went to page 16 on the Motorbikes section to dig out the Chetak thread (says a lot about where the Chetak stands in this forum), and didnt find too much outrage on Bajaj's supposedly egregious strategies (50% hike + no charger + annual data fees) from Team BHPs 71,542 members. There were less than 5 posts that were critical of their massive price hike in April 2021. From 71,542 members.

If it were such a big deal, based on the track record of this forum, we probably should have seen more posts that were critical of Bajaj.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sri_tesla (Post 5236923)

Companies announcing the base models and never delivering them is very common in the Indian automobile world. The dealership will say that the base variant will take 5-6 months and push the customers to go for higher variants especially for the products which are in high demand. It happened to me with my Honda City purchase in 2014.

There is a more than a small difference between
- a company going slow on the manufacture of base models (to prioritize the delivery of more profitable mid and top end variants) and
- a company stating that they will not manufacture the base model for 12 months after they took bookings.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sri_tesla (Post 5236923)

Delays in the automobile world are very common and in the EV space, it's even more. Bajaj and TVS have decades of experience with manufacturing and supply chain management but still, they could not meet the delivery timelines of their EVs. Ather officially claimed they are operating at full capacity of 10,000 units per month and they are not even delivering 3,000 scooters per month but there is a 2-3 months delay for their scooter. It's the same or worse with Revolt as well. By the way, Ola dispatched more scooters in its first month than Bajaj Chetak and TVS iQube combined first year (2020) sales. In fact, Ola dispatched more than double that of chetak and iQube first-year sales. It's also more than Ather's annual deliveries in 2019 and 2020.

But nobody is talking about the others. The point is where does Ola stand with respect to all the lofty timelines and delivery schedules that they themselves promised? Nobody is criticizing Ola with respect to its competition. We are just logically pointing out that Ola aims for the sky and misses its targets, time and again. That just reeks of bad leadership behind all the marketing showboating.

I dont know why people keep bringing up TVS and Bajaj and Ather and Revolt. So what if Ola outperforms some of the others in the nascent EV space? That is like saying India's number 11 batsman has a higher batting average than his peers in the South Africa, Australia and England cricket team. It doesnt change the fact that its still the number 11 batsman.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sri_tesla (Post 5236923)

Anyway, after customer feedback, Ola has reversed their decision and now delivering locked S1 pro to all those who paid Rs 20,499 in Jan and Feb batch. They are listening to their customers unlike others (Bajaj) who import most of the components from China yet lecture the startups who are doing more inhouse manufacturing.

I am glad to note that in closing, you have cemented what I have been trying to say about Ola's terrible leadership. The top honchos at Ola would not have taken the decision to start production of the base S1 at the end of 2022, lightly. They must have put in hours of effort in simulating production planning, calculating delta profits from the S1 Pro, conversions etc and only then would they have reached out to the customers and informed them about it.

But dont you think that they would have put some thought into the sort of feedback that customers were bound to give them? Or was the leadership at Ola so shocked that people were unhappy, that they had to reverse course immediately? Why such a knee jerk u-turn? Again, all of this smacks of leadership incompetence.

Anyways, this is what a fellow TBHPian mentioned to me last night when we were discussing this latest Ola debacle - "Its just a scooter, why does the whole purchase decision and experience have to be so complicated with Ola?".

And that perfectly sums up the problem with Ola.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fuzzydealhunter (Post 5237345)

I am guessing there was not much thought amongst the TBHP members because the product was so lacklustre that people just did not notice it. It was available in only 2 cities back when it was launched!

You can call them number 11 or even the benchwarmer but end of the day you have to compare them against what is available in the market. Feel free to point out other scooters we should be comparing them against and we shall us that as the yardstick.

So far even without the smart features and I have been enjoying the scooter in my runs around the city. End of the day for me thats what matters and Ola has delivered on that.

fuzzydealhunter, on the Chetak, you and I are saying the exact same thing. Dragging a dull, run of the mill electric Bajaj scooter that is barely selling, into the conversation / thread, when we are discussing the Ola S1 and S1 Pro, serves no purpose.

On your second point, I dont believe that I have brought up comparisons with other electric scooters to date. On strategy, execution, operations, rollout schedules, adherence to promised dates, I have maintained that we dont need to compare Ola to others (as so many forum members like doing). Instead we ought to consider what Ola has promised and what Ola has actual achieved. Thats it. Thats my point of contention. Saying that yeah, Ola has slipped so many times but the others have slipped worse than us, is what led me to the number 11 comparison.

On your last point, thats great to hear. I have started seeing more EV scooters in Cochin recently, though most of them are from the "Chinese manufacturers" segment of offerings. Ive seen a few Athers as well but Im yet to spot an Ola in town. Do continue to update us with how the scooter performs, as so many potential owners will benefit from your feedback and experience.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pogo0120 (Post 5237263)

Does this mean that,

1. New S1 == [S1 pro - Some features]. Can OLA clearly describe what features are missing in [S1 Pro-Some features]. Just range and top speed or something else?

Yes new S1 is basically S1Pro Hardware without features/specs that were never part of S1. Which means Range, Top speed, Hyper mode, Cruise control, Hill hold and Voice assist will all be not enabled. As per the initial announcement the two models would have different hardware too (bigger battery). see the below quoted post from the first posts of this thread.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR (Post 5195717)

Both the Ola scooters come with a Mid Drive IPM electric motor capable of producing 5.5 kW of rated power and 8.5 kW of peak power, with 58 Nm of torque produced at the motor shaft and powering the wheels via belt drive. However, the S1 Pro gets the benefit of a 3.97 kWh battery pack powering the motor, whereas the S1 only gets a 2.98 kWh battery pack. This is enough to get the S1 Pro and S1 claimed 0-60 km/h times of 5 seconds and 7 seconds and top speeds of 115 km/h and 90 km/h, respectively...

...Although the motor is is the same in these two scooters, the smaller battery pack in the base variant cannot provide the juice required for the Hyper mode.

Quote:

2. If no additional amount is demanded and [S1 Pro-some features] is better than original S1, what is the problem people are talking about? Was there some specific feature in S1 which is missing in S1 Pro.

I tried to look up at OLA website. Not described..

No additional amount is demanded now. The problem what people had was due to the announcement by Ola. They first announced that they've stopped production of S1 for now and will only produce S1 Pro. They told that production of S1 will resume only by the end of 2022. Those asked those who've booked S1 to upgrade to S1 Pro (by paying extra ₹30k) or wait till S1 production resumes. This was kind of forcing people to upgrade to a higher variant. After people expressed their dissent, they've now decided to S1 pro by disabling features meant only for S1 pro. This means people who have booked an S1 need not wait and at a later date can also upgrade by paying additional amount for the performance upgrade (which is priced at ₹30k currently).

I feel that S1 was never produced and will never be produced with a different hardware. Setting up a new variant in a production line and handling different parts will be more expensive and Ola will save on this. Moreover if people can upgrade anytime, it is a win-in for both Ola and the customer. S1 was needed to grab people's attention and set the impression that there is an EV available for less than a lakh and it has done that. Now that the purpose is served, there is no need of it!

Things like these only spoil the goodwill and faith of general public in the company, not that it personally affects me because neither am I a shareholder or owner of the company but this sneaky way of doing business does not go long way.
Add to the fact that they have no goodwill in the automobile space, they are wanting to firmly establish themselves as a major player and have spent a considerable amount of money doing so and at the risk of repeating myself are doing so with zero history/experience/goodwill of the past, in a new sector which people are far from warming up to (today atleast) and with a radically different selling channel, this just sounds very short sighted and highly stupid.

Had a company like Maruti done it with maybe the Alto's base model it would still have been understandable because their years of goodwill and trust can't take a hit in a day but even that would leave a bad taste in people's mouth which doesn't take long to translate in fall in reputation, which should be preserved for any long term business to survive let alone be loved or thrive.
But even that could be still ok because they are already selling a large number of units of a well established brand and the dent of sales and fall in potential sales wouldn't be that much.
Last time I checked, I don't know many people who are happy to pay 1.2 lakhs for a commuter scooter no matter what it runs on. (I'am not saying this means they'll sell zero but for a thing to be mainstream it has to appeal to the lowest common denominator) No idea how this can be good for Ola in short or long term, no matter how I look at it.

Also please stop the comparison with other scooters or ICE vs Electric debate and continue to defend your preferred team no matter what they do, I think we Bhpians have our passion in common and are mostly not fanboys or politicians to engage in these sorts of debates, we love our automobiles and demand the best product and experience today and in the future and our honest in our observations that is it.