[TusharK]

Ola Electric has added two new electric scooters to its line-up in about a month. The S1 Air was introduced at the end of July, followed by the S1X. The company expects sales volumes to increase with these affordable options now available to customers.



Ola claims to have received over 75,000 bookings in the last 2 weeks alone. However, the company hasn't disclosed the model-wise breakdown of these bookings.

The S1X is the most affordable e-scooter in Ola's line-up, with prices starting at Rs 89,999 (ex-showroom). It is available with three battery options - 2 kWh, 3 kWh and the top-spec S1X Plus variant is offered with a 4 kWh battery pack.

The S1 Air is priced at Rs 1.20 lakh (ex-showroom) and comes with a 3 kWh battery pack that has a range of 125 km. It powers a 6 BHP electric motor that enables the e-scooter to reach a top speed of 85 km/h.

Link to Team-BHP News

[bharadhaaa]

So even after when we have clear examples so many people experiencing numerous issues with the scooters catching fire, front end breaking, rear suspension issues, software bugs, self-acceleration sometimes in reverse which is even scarier. Some owners complaining and even having protests there to close down the showrooms, many going on social media tearing a new one for Bhavish for scamming them on these scooters, so many complaints of undelivered or problematic scooters that are either stuck in the service centers or stuck unfixed and delivered to customers...75,000+ people are still willing to buy ?

This ignorance has what led companies let loose on not innovating for years together and provide us with complete garbage at times that we have come to accept for the hard earned money that we give them.

[Neo18]

Absolutely crazy numbers for a rather sub-standard e-scooter. There are 3 Ola S1 Pros in my apartment complex and every other week, the service technician is in the apartment for sorting issues and the owners of the scooter give him an absolute mouth full! I feel sorry for the technician as he has no clue what is wrong with the scooter and the standard answer is software reset. Wonder how the customers will be treated once warranty runs out and as it is, with the number of issues and the ratio of showrooms/service centers(600/200), it is not going to be a pretty picture for the customers. Makes me wonder what entices folks to go for these scooters in the first place. Are there so many folks doing more than 25-30 kms per day? Is it the design and colors that attract folks? What are customers of these scooters planning to do when a fat battery replacement bill is handed out to them and warranty is denied for all the trivial reasons in the world?

[aseem23]

I personally believe these are fake numbers for PR. Ola probably makes the worst e-scooters in the market, and I am not sure how many bookings will actually convert to buyers.

My advice would be to stay away from Ola scooters unless you want to burn your hard-earned money.

[DDIS_RE650]

In my hometown Patna, you will spot several OLA scooters. In my colony, all the newly registered scooters are from Ola. It is testimony of the sales volume, many folks do not spend time on social media or are as informed as a handful of enthusiasts. I believe Ola is going to be the next Splendor or Activa in the 2Wheelers segment.

[Oppanna]

Are these real numbers? What is surprising is that the number of OLA E scooters on the road. They are not cheap. They are pricey.

Yesterday when i was driving towards my native i could spot around 10 Ola scooters which was a shocking for me.

Do these people who are buying these e scooters are aware of the battery cost? What will happen post warranty?

Or are these people thinking that let me use the scooter till battery dies and later discard? If this is happening what measures are taken to reduced the e waste?

[payeng]

Guess what numbers from VAHAN PORTAL show.

Unlike SIAM number which is basically Wholesale/Factory Dispatches, you get real time Customer Registration numbers from VAHAN

[dhruvagarwal]

Originally Posted by DDIS_RE650

I believe Ola is going to be the next Splendor or Activa in the 2Wheelers segment.

I beg to disagree. Activa and Splendor are where they are today, because:
a) They were reliable
b) Repeat purchases

An average Activa buyer swears by his/her Activa and is very likely to replace an Activa with another Activa. This is similar to an average Innova customer. I do not see any of these two factors going for Ola electric. The kind of horror stories we read only goes to show that Ola is where close to being a 'reliable' scooter.

In my opinion, their present sales is only a function of their marketing spend, i.e. spend x on marketing, get 3x/4x/5x in sales. There's no inherent pull for their product in the market, which is not sustainable in the long term.

[Yieldway17]

Originally Posted by aseem23

I personally believe these are fake numbers for PR. Ola probably makes the worst e-scooters in the market, and I am not sure how many bookings will actually convert to buyers.

My advice would be to stay away from Ola scooters unless you want to burn your hard-earned money.

Need not be, but can't say. I see several Ola scooters in my commute. Ola absolutely dominates electric scooter space. And then the Ather.

This is anecdotal experience but I believe Ola has got to that point of critical momentum where the momentum keeps accelerating from there on.

I'm as surprised as you are and I don't like their scooters and will get Ather any day but I can't deny what I see with my eyes.

[vamsi.kona]

I think some of us are assuming certain things without having any solid study/survey to back or attributing our opinion, like looks for example, as probably universal or something that the buyers really give much importance.

With regards fire accidents I could find 3 fire accidents related to Ola scooters. 1 in Pune in 2022 and the other 2 in Bhopal and Kerala. In the Bhopal fire case, the battery was intact and fire reportedly started from the boot which was open. So fire wasn't caused by battery. So, after Pune fire accident, the Kerala accident was the one which could have been caused by battery. While even 1 is also probably too many, given the total numbers and new technology, may not be as alarming.

The front fork issue was certainly a concern and issue with design. Unfortunately some customers were at receiving end. However, that issue is addressed now.

After moving to OS2 I heard and read, even here, that most bugs were addressed. Ideally these should have been tested thoroughly before bringing it to public at large. But I think the more software driven the vehicles are, the more issues, even if minor, that will be there across all manufacturers. After OS 3, majority of the bugs seems to have been sorted.

While marketing is important for the success of any product, that alone will not help with out a competent product/service. Right now in the 2 wheeler EV space Ola gives the best VFM products. TVS had avery good variant in Iqube ST but never sold it. And with the new Gen 2 S1pro model along with S1 air and S1X models Ola is most likely to increase it's market share.

With regards battery cost and degradation overtime.
1 As battery tech improves cost of batteries most likely will come down.
2. Automotive battery industry is one industry where recycling happens to a very large extent. I would expect the same for EV vehicle batteries. What we should be more worried is how we dispose off millions and millions of used mobile phone and laptop batteries.
While I don't have knowledge about battery tech or even automobiles, from what I have read, degradation in batteries may not be a drop off a cliff. I believe the technology and implementation of a EV battery is different from a mobile or laptop battery. Studies have found Tesla batteries holding more than 90% capacity after 1 lakh miles. Since we don't have any examples with such mileage, for now we can probably use as an example of what might happen to battery capacity.

With regards service Ola certainly needs to improve a lot.

Having been a long time reader of this forum, I have seen many times with various vehicles, how the market scenario is completely in contrast to what this forum of auto enthisiasts feels or opines. I remember a more or less uniform opinion that the first iteration of Dzire was not much to talk about design wise, to put it mildly. However, that car set the sales charts on fire. Then there are a few cars which had many praise like anything, but never sold. It's not that the opinions here are right or wrong, it's just that the priorities of people purchasing these vehicles might be different.

[The Rationalist]

The market is the best determinant of a product. It won't sell unless the majority finds it value for money. No amount marketing will help, so there's more to Ola selling the highest number of electric scooters. If it was that bad as it is being described, Ola would have shut shop by now! Why no legacy scooter makers have been able to dethrone Ola? Honda, Hero, TVS with all their might haven't able to do that. So having huge amounts of money isn't enough to capture market share. The sizeable chunk of 2 wheeler users commute for less than 50 kms a day, so for them there's savings of around ₹100/day. A no brainer for most as it will feel like an salary increment!

NB: I don't know anything about 2 wheelers, so my views maybe wrong.