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-   -   Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/motorbikes/244398-ola-s1-electric-scooter-review-45.html)

Ah well, this is the way things are going to play out in the EV space I guess. Lots of new aspects to think about, regulations to ponder, practices and processes to get in place. It's going to be a drawn-out and continuous evolution, but I guess this is the way it will evolve. Not sure most of today's major players will be left standing though, the companies jumping in later will benefit from all the mistakes and errors the first movers went through. Interesting times ahead.

Ola Electric factory tour video showing general assembly, battery pack assembly, welding, paint shop, etc...:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbJWWtlSZOQ

Ok, so after he burnt the scooter OLA wanted to give him a new one. He should take it

This video is confidence inspiring. Good to know the batteries are from LG Chem, hope LG Chem engineers are also involved in the investigation of the fire incident.

I have counted a total of 224 batteries, which seem to be 2170 cylindrical cells, some online spec sheet says each cell has ~18wh energy.

224×18=4032wh

I absolutely loved this interview of the person who bought this scooter (He is a DOCTOR, well know in AMBUR town) and in sheer frustration set it on fire. Catch it before the video is brought down by the Company (The man is already warned not to give interviews). In this, I saw couple of instances of niceties of us INDIANS (Petrol bunk helping him charge), some insights (When a man of his reputation is seen pushing the vehicle in his small town), his frustration building up, OLA 'customer care response' and the reasoning behind the act. Really feel for him nowhttps://youtu.be/3IbVB3-BpL0

Well, LG batteries were involved in Chevrolet bolt ev fires as well. Not saying they would not have corrected the issue, but just because its a reputed brand doesn't means its safer.

Absolutely agree.
The service situation in India is generally pathetic. If Ola had a good service and promptly fixed the issue, people would have actually commented about this as a positive move. I am sure all of us know that issues/niggles will exist in any new product.

The difference between good companies and bad companies is the way they react to a problem and fix it. Ola seems to have completely lost the plot on the service side.

Having battery cells of good quality helps, but it's not just about the cell quality. It matters how the battery pack is designed. There are a lot of efforts that are put in for testing and perfecting
the battery pack design. If there are any shortcuts in this process, lot of things can and do go wrong.

Can someone throw some light on the impact of ambient temperature on charging of Lithium ion battery? A bit of look-up on net indicates that charging at an ambient temperature beyond 45C may cause bloating and explosion. If that is true, that sounds scary for India! But, of course, Lithium Ion batteries were, and even now are, common in laptop and mobile phones.

Another fallout of experimentation with the battery range of an Ola S1 Pro here has exposed how EV's can give up if the Sport and Hyper modes are incessantly used. The owner had a fixed distance to cover and he was well aware about it. The fact is that he was not riding a Hero Honda CD 100/ Passion /Passion Pro to "fill it shut it and forget it", but an Ola S1 Pro EV.

The S1 Pro's battery showed alarm signs while he was on his way back. Even the roadside mechanics if available cannot help during such battery failures.

And Ola's helpline proves disastrous frustrating the owner, who waited for hours to get the scooter transported.

The Ola was carried piggyback on a three wheeler engaged by the EV owner and was powered by fossil fuel.

Saw the ola scooter first time in flesh and that too in this condition.
Location: Ghaziabad
Breakdown reason: Unknown

Ola Electric became the market leader in electric 2-wheeler sales in April. According to govt's Vahan portal which tracks permanent registrations for most of the states, Ola Electric delivered 12,683 units to customers, registering a 38% increase over its tally in March.





Note: Vahan only tracks the permanent registration numbers. Many states like Gujarat, TN, Kerala, Karnataka (outside Bangalore), etc... have a temp registration system, and will take 2-3 months for those TR vehicles to be converted to PR and show up in Vahan. Also, AP, TS, and MP are not part of the Vahan database.

Source:
https://auto.economictimes.indiatime...april/91236472

https://www.rushlane.com/ola-electri...-12434750.html

Mostly I'm noticing these dark OLA scooters breaking down or catching fire. Anything to do with the 'matte black' colour's heat absorbing nature on the batteries?

The breakdown is most likely due to the battery percentage sudden drop from 20 or 30% to 0%. The battery percentage shown on the dashboard is not updated if the scooter is kept idle for a few days. As with any electric scooter, there is some idle drop per day. Only after reboot, the dashboard is being updated with the actually available battery percentage.

The best workaround to avoid this situation is to charge fully whenever possible and reboot every time before starting a trip.

sri_tesla, Im not sure I fully understand your post since you have thrown in the idle drop (battery drain for the laymap) in between. Is there any correlation between the idle drop and the faulty software going from 30% to 0% due to poor coding and / or negligent testing from Ola? Or are they unrelated? Your post makes it look like they are related.

Also, do you have any insights into why the Ola scooters go backwards when owners give it acceleration? You seem to have a lot of knowledge on the EV space, so it will be great if you can shed some light on this potentially life threatening behaviour of Ola scooters, that the company doesnt publicly acknowledge.