[m2badri]

Hi All - I have been on this forum for several years but haven't written any reviews so far. I bought Hero Vida V1 Pro yesterday after going through the reviews here and in YT as well. I thought I would share my experience - buying as well as riding the electric scooter and will try to address any questions that others might be interested in.

First the pics of the Hero Vida V1 Pro that i bought -






I bought this from Pheonix Motors in Hyderabad (Hi-tech city). The purchase experience was good. The staff were knowledgeable and briefed about the product reasonably well. The reviews really helped to fill in the gaps of the experience center staff. They were renovating their show room, so most of the demo and discussions happened at the cellar.
The experience center staff were very willing to provide multiple test drives. Since my office was nearby, I dropped into to check the vehicle and the test drive was provided immediately. I was wow-ed by the smoothness of the drive and noiseless motor - first time driving an EV and that might be the reason for the wow factor!

I traded in my 10 year old Bajaj Avenger 220 cc - which i had very sparingly used - 8800 kms in 10 years! It was mostly for small drive and for grocery pick-up. Only once did I drive this on a long drive to Ananthagiri hills - Thanks to prodding by my brother-in-law who has a RE Interceptor!

I believe I got a decent sale price - it was 27500 rs for the vehicle and 5000 rs for the exchange bonus. It was 28 k but they later reduced 1 k since I forgot to renew my insurance (expired in Apr 2023 - my bad!).

Here are the pics of my Bajaj Avenger 220 CC - still looks great and in a very good condition.





Besides this, I received rs 6.5k as cash bonus - Year end offer was going on. I couldn't get the loyalty bonus (7.5k) and corporate (2.5k) - for some weird reason, they didn't have my company listed as corporate.

There was an offer for Extended Battery Warranty through Acko for 2 more years - so I have 5 years and 60000 kms of battery warranty covered for this vehicle. The cost of this was around 8.5k (came free due to YE offer).

There was a free subscription offer for the first 6 months - some of the connected features that comes along with the vehicle - worth rs 1250.

Overall, I paid around 1.20 lakhs after trading in my Bajaj Avenger and got this one. The insurance was around rs 6.6k and around 4 k for handling, registration and other stuff. I took a battery charger carrying case (rs.315 - worth buying this one from the show room - makes the charger very portable and easy to cary) and a side foot rest for rs 1.2k. The build quality was very good, so paid and got it fitted during the delivery of the vehicle.

Now coming to the ride quality, since I have been driving this for 2 days now - The vehicle is very smooth and the acceleration in Eco mode is adequate for solo driving. I live around Banjara hills therefore there are many ups (gradient - big and small) and downs, so I switch to the Ride mode to get some extra power.

I have observed that the Eco mode gives the maximum range but the display keeps changing and I think, it would be better not to pay attention to it. The ride mode can take you to speed more than 50 kmph very easily and should be used on open roads.

The cruise control on this vehicle works like a charm and i used it in most of my drive. I frankly didn't expect this to work well like it does in cars - but I was mistaken, it works flawlessly. Its jus that you have to learn as to how to engage (use it) and then it would be super easy on open stretches - believe me, it takes the strain from giving the accelerator. You would love this feature, if you start to use them..

The instrument panel is well laid out and the UI is super easy to understand. I haven't started to use Vida App through my mobile, since the activation would happen only after the vehicle is registered. I have seen good number of videos to understand the app and the features that this offers - hopefully i would start to use them once the activation is done after the registration.

The engine start / boot opening buttons are placed very closely and you will almost end up opening the boot all the time. One sore thing is that there is no owner or user manual (hard copy) provided and a link is provided for the buyer to familiarize with the controls and functions. This doesn't have pictures and everything is textual, therefore someone who haven't seen the vidoes would find it very hard to follow. My suggestion would be to pay enough attention during the demo / delivery or see YT vidoes. There are a few ones which are really good to help us understand the controls and features. It really helped me a lot - more than the inputs that were provided by the show room staff.

Another pain point is the closing of boot - you will get used to it to know the knack to close / lock this and until such time, this would be a frustrating thing.

The biggest benefit in this EV is the removable battery. I stay in an apartment and don't have a charging point (5 amp switch is enough), therefore this was the only EV that suited my needs. The other benefit is that the EV can run on one battery, while the other is being charged - but the preference is to run it with both batteries -for both power and range. I think, the range for me in the last two days are around 100 to 110 kms and this keeps fluctuating therefore I am not going to pay attention to this.
Believe me, its better to look at the battery % rather than the range - since the difference between sports and eco mode is around 35% range loss. Even when you are in Eco or Ride mode, you can accelerate more if required and the vehicles allows an automatic switch over to Sports mode for 30 seconds - will be very useful when you need a surge of power to overtake. This is a very thoughtful feature - though i would recommend a leisurely drive which you would enjoy for sure!

The touch panel is very responsive and I like all the details that is available now. One thing to include would be the Cruise speed set by the driver - this isn't shown on the display and you have to look at the speed to understand that its the crusing speed and jus like in our cars, you can increase and decrease the cruise speed by 2 kmph. There is a bit of learning curve on this, since you will invariably look at the handle bar (right) to fiddle through the multiple switches before you get it right.

There are two trip meters - very useful info - distance travelled / kms covered and average speed are available. The overall ODO is also displayed which is good to have.

In summary the display panel is good, responsive and has most of the information that you would require. Its big (adequate) 7 inches TFT. There are after market screen guards available in amazon and there is a video in YT if you want to learn to fix this on the TFT panel.

In Hyderabad, there aren't many Vida charging stations, but the good thing is that Ather stations can be used for charging Hero Vida - some standarization of the charging ports are very good for customers as well as the operators as well. I have heard that none of the users have tested the Ather charging station. I shall check this out in a few weeks and will add an update accordingly.

So far the experience has been good and I have started to like the vehicle. My usage is very limited but I am planning to use it extensively during the weekends.

This is my first post - therefore please pardon me for any misgivings. I have tried to cover as much information as possible. I will be glad to answer any questions or provide additional information on Hero Vida, if any of the forum members are interested to know.

One important information - might be useful though the YE offers would cease to exist as of 31 Dec - nevertheless good to know. The show room invoice (base price, tax, FAME subsidy) will be different from the invoice that you can download from Hero Vida portal. I was seeing a difference of 12k and was very concerned & reached out to Vida support. They gave me information to some extent and asked me to work with the dealer. I sat with the dealer and they gave me some explanation, but somehow I feel that it would be good to ask for the clarity on the base prices, tax, other charges and FAME II subsidy (should be available until Mar 2024) before you negotiate on insurance, handling charges, support, registration charges etc., I wasn't aware of this prior and I decided to buy within 2 days (last day of the offer 31 Dec 2023!) but good to be clear before you commit to put the cheque on the table. I can help to answer any specific questions on this aspect as well - to the best extent that i can.

I will end this review for now - didn't realize that i wrote a very lengthly review (for a first timer).

P.S: Now that I have got a grasp of writing the review, I would do one for my Kia Carens 1.5 Diesel AT - which i bought in Jul 2022. I have been putting off writing my experience of owning Kia and this first experience would help me to do it after completing 20k in Carens. Thanks for your time and would appreciate any feedback.

[N4Revv]

Very well written informative post. Please also tell more about Vida app and Navigation feature working fine or not. Many videos on YouTube complaining regarding these two only.

[three10]

Nice review. Wishing you many km of joyful riding. I’m hoping that with an EV (with lesser moving parts), the lack luster hero service won’t be too much of an issue.

What stood out for me here is the removable battery - mighty convenient to use where you cannot install a permanent charger for multiple reasons. I wish this becomes a standard across all electric scooters.

[B5glider]

My first post on teambhp, happy to start with reply to a question on vida v1 pro.
For navigation, the app is the starting point. The wifi connection between the app and the scoot has to be done within the app first. I was initially struggling because was trying to connect to the scooter using direct wifi instead of going through the app.
Steps as below
1) connect to the wifi from the app
2) once the scoot is connected, then search for location
3) start navigation
4) you will see that the turn by turn will show up on the scooter
5) the turn by turn is seamless and it works like a charm
6) only downside is, in cities like bangalore, in a circle, there may be 5 roads, the google maps will show you which left you should take, its 2nd or 3rd etc. But the vida tft wont show that in full due to text length restriction
7) Experts, pls help if there is a way out. Thanks
I will pen down my experience separately on the vida v1 to just add to the nicely written review above for the candy blue vida.

[m2badri]

Originally Posted by N4Revv

Very well written informative post. Please also tell more about Vida app and Navigation feature working fine or not. Many videos on YouTube complaining regarding these two only.

Glad to know that you liked my first review.
I am yet to use the Vida app since it will be activated after the vehicle registration.
There is one YT channel called "Ankit Gupta vlogs" and he has many videos which I found it to be very informative. In one of the videos, he has uploaded one video about the navigation and it seems to be working fine. There was some issues - hanging of app especially if you take a turn than what is suggested on the screen.
Please check out the above YouTube vlog. This might be useful.
I will also add my observations and experience after getting the Vida app installed. Thanks

[SS80]

Congrats on the ride.
My cousin bought a Vida about a year ago and below are some of my observations.
1. Excellent seat size
2. Even 6ft height person can use it without issues
3. Adequate tyre size
4. Huge underseat storage
5. The dual removable battery is a blessing.

Issues:
1. Please charge the battery on the balcony instead of the kitchen/hall/bedroom - touch wood if the battery catches fire it's a huge mess and risk. If it's on the balcony, it's somewhat contained.
2. Whenever you get OS updates ensure your bike does not fall into limp mode. Recently Hero updated his bike, post that the range has improved by 5 to 10% however if you twist the throttle too suddenly the bike gets into limp mode and the only way to fix it is, to park the bike switch it off & switch it.
3. Sometimes bike does not start, because when we park on a side stand, if the handle is not turned to the extreme left, the locking function does not work. However, once you remove the side stand, the bike continues to believe that the handle is locked. So the fix is to engage the side stand again, turn the handle right end and then to the left end, and unlock it.
4. crude finishing of plastic edges under the seat. They reminded me of TATA cars finishing in some places.

[m2badri]

Originally Posted by three10

Nice review. Wishing you many km of joyful riding. I’m hoping that with an EV (with lesser moving parts), the lack luster hero service won’t be too much of an issue.

What stood out for me here is the removable battery - mighty convenient to use where you cannot install a permanent charger for multiple reasons. I wish this becomes a standard across all electric scooters.

Thanks for your feedback.
You are right - the biggest plus point is the removable battery. I went in for this Vida V1 Pro primarily for the ease of charging with removable battery.
This might not become a standard since the existing other vehicles have added that to the chasis, so a revamp of the design by the company might be required, therefore less chances of many following suit.
There is a good use case and business sense to standardize the charging infrastructure - charging pin, charging wattage and the software to control them through app or vehicle. That would be a big plus and shall quickly move people to adapt to EV vehicles.

Originally Posted by B5glider

My first post on teambhp, happy to start with reply to a question on vida v1 pro.
For navigation, the app is the starting point. The wifi connection between the app and the scoot has to be done within the app first. I was initially struggling because was trying to connect to the scooter using direct wifi instead of going through the app.
....

Yes, you are absolutely right. The vehicle wifi might
directly connect to the phone and that causes the issue. I saw in one of the YT videos to forget the wifi connection in the phone and connect the wifi only through the Vida app. This should help to improve the stability of the app and the features including navigation. Thanks for sharing your experience.

[B5glider]

Originally Posted by three10

Nice review. Wishing you many km of joyful riding. I’m hoping that with an EV (with lesser moving parts), the lack luster hero service won’t be too much of an issue.

What stood out for me here is the removable battery - mighty convenient to use where you cannot install a permanent charger for multiple reasons. I wish this becomes a standard across all electric scooters.

Exactly the problem iam facing with hero service now. The scoot is a gem but the service is anything near good.
1) Still to get the extended battery warranty activated inspite of multiple followups.
2) Inspite of completing my first service, i did not receive any acknowledgement nor any record on the app. Nobody in hero knows what to do.
3) I had to go to 3 service centers in bangalore to find put who will do the first service. Had to go to magadi road direct to get the scoot serviced finally since other service centers dont know.
4) the speed in sports more is limited to 63kmph. Is this the case for others as well please?

The app is a bit sluggish. Remember to switch off the wifi on the phone when you are trying to connect with the scoot. Else the app would never open. And do remember to buy a screen guard for the tfr since it definitely needs one for safety.
Anybody know how to get the extended warranty for the battery please? Thx a ton!

[Aditya]

Thanks for sharing, m2badri! Moving your post out to a new thread. A new thread means 100X the views & 100X the visibility in search engines, including Google .

@ BHPians, if you should spot any good post in an existing thread that deserves its own new thread, please report the post and we'll move it out for greater visibility.

Thank you!

[m2badri]

Originally Posted by N4Revv

Very well written informative post. Please also tell more about Vida app and Navigation feature working fine or not. Many videos on YouTube complaining regarding these two only.

My registration process was completed, therefore the Showroom team called me to Activate the Vida app. I received an OTP that I had to share with them over the phone and the Vida app on my phone was activated.
I went to the showroom today to fit the number plates and had them set up the Wifi / BT connectivity of the vehicle - on to the Vida app. The wifi set up was a breeze but the BT connection was set up after some trial and error. The issue is the name of BT connection doesn't appear on the TFT screen (unlike the WiFi ssid), therefore you have to select multiple BT devices that shows up in the app and one of that would work. This is jus the initial set up process and once you have set it up, then it connects automatically as long as the wifi/BT are turned on - in your mobile phone.
One key thing to note, the wifi / BT connection should be established from the Vida app and not directly through the phone wifi/BT, which in my view was the primary reason for many issues reported by other users.

Now coming to your Navigation, I set up my home as the destination from the Showroom and the Nav view popped up without any flaws. The turn by turn navigation also worked very well. Please note that the turn symbols in the TFT screen would be very basic / minimal and don't expect the full functionality that you would typically see in Google maps or Car infotainment system - AA or CarPlay. Ex., if there is a roundabout or roads branching - one to a fly over and the other to the road besides the fly over, the navigation guidance wouldn't distinguish the path to take the fly over and it would jus show a straight arrow. This means that you should have some familiarity of the location, so you can make some sense of the Navigation signs on the TFT.
The other information on the TFT screen includes the distance to destination, the ETA and the remaining distance to the next route are displayed prominently and seem to be useful while driving.
I did feel some issues with the visibility of the screen in good sunlight but its manageable once you get used to it.
In summary, the connectivity / Navigation feature of the Vida 1 Pro is working as it is supposed to be.
One issue that i have observed today on the navigation - There is an option to set "Home" and "Work" location in the Hero Vida app, but its not very clear as to how this has to be set up. I must say all the addresses show up on the search (which is good). I searched for my apartment and before I could finish typing it in the app, the actual address showed up for me to select. Upon clicking the "Start" navigation on the App, the TFT panel in the vehicle immediately shows up the start of the navigation.
I will test it for some more time and shall post my feedback / experience.
Hope this answers your query on the Navigation related experience / issues reported by users.

If any of the Vida app users have cracked the code on setting up the Home / Work in the app, please do share your inputs and that would be very helpful.

[N4Revv]

They have wasted a good opportunity to give google maps or map my India’s map, the screen is there, WiFi connectivity is there, sim is also there, but there is no will inside Hero to give Vida a proper navigation function. SAD

[GutsyGibbon]

Originally Posted by m2badri

The biggest benefit in this EV is the removable battery. I stay in an apartment and don't have a charging point (5 amp switch is enough), therefore this was the only EV that suited my needs.

Congrats on the new EV. I think a lot of people share this same need.

• Can you please share your experience of lifting the battery pack from the scooter, and carrying it to your apartment. How easy is this?
• Apart from the weight, does it have sturdy handles?
• Is there a latching mechanism to make sure battery is securely seated?
• Is there any play in the battery, or does it fit snug?
• Is it hard to locate the slots, or slide the battery in?
• Would it help if you have a luggage carrying dolly to carry the battery?
• Does it auto shut off to prevent overcharging? Are there any displays on the battery to indicate state of charge?

[m2badri]

Originally Posted by GutsyGibbon

Congrats on the new EV. I think a lot of people share this same need.

• Can you please share your experience of lifting the battery pack from the scooter, and carrying it to your apartment. How easy is this?
• Apart from the weight, does it have sturdy handles?
• Is there a latching mechanism to make sure battery is securely seated?
• Is there any play in the battery, or does it fit snug?
• Is it hard to locate the slots, or slide the battery in?
• Would it help if you have a luggage carrying dolly to carry the battery?
• Does it auto shut off to prevent overcharging? Are there any displays on the battery to indicate state of charge?

Here is my experience for your reference
1. The battery pack is heavy. Reach one would with around 11 kgs. It isn't easy to carry them along of you apartment is far from the parking. If you choose to carry one at a time, is certainly manageable.
2. Yes, the battery pack had sturdy handles
3. Yes, there is and you will easily get used to it
4. Yes, especially if you want to carry birth batteries at the same time. I have managed to carry birth batteries at one go - from parking to my apartment without taking the lift. It was jus one floor!
5. There is auto shut off and i witnessed it yesterday when I left the batteries for charging after they were fully charged. There are 4 green lights to indicate the level of charging. Solid green light indicates fully charged battery. Each green light indicates 25% of battery charge. There is a hissing sound that comes from the charger during the charging process and it's normal.

[m2badri]

Update on Hero Vida Experience - 2 Months 400 kms done

This past week when I was trying to charge the battery at home, the charger started to malfunction. Neither of the batteries were getting charged. This happened on Wed (06 Mar) and I promptly reached out to Vida support through chat/calls. Case was registered in their portal - since that time every day the case is getting auto resolved without even talking to me. I am sincerely re-opening the case every singe time. I reached out to RSA support since the battery isn't getting charged, I can't take the vehicle to the service center. The RSA tech came home after a day and suggested to tow the vehicle and confirmed to have submitted a request in their app. I had to follow up several times and finally a towing vehicle reached my home after 2 days to tow the vehicle.
Since it was a Friday, the service center received the vehicle but told that the vehicle will be seen only on Monday, since they have a holiday on Sat / Sun as well. Practically, I haven't been able to use the vehicle for the last 5 days. I choose to leave it at the Service center, since there is no point in keeping the vehicle with a battery charging issue.

My thoughts / feedback to those who are exploring to buy Vida or any electric vehicle - Please wait for a year or more to make the investment in electric vehicles for two reasons - firstly the price of the EV's are falling down due to more inventory (I guess) - In Hyd Hero Vida is now selling at 1.25 lakhs whereas when I bought it was 1.60 lakhs jus a few month before. (I got it for 1.20 after trading in a good Bajaj Avenger and a good number of offers / discounts - I still don't understand the calculations as to how I ended up paying 1.20 lakhs after trading in a vehicle & with the discounts as well).
Secondly, the service centers are still focussing on petrol vehicles and their service staff aren't trained for handling the EV's. You will experience the same thing that I am experiencing, if not worse - you will have to end up loosing your vehicle due to these issues.

It's not a good place to be in, after buying a vehicle worth 1.6 lakhs. My sincere advice is to hold off your purchases until a year or two - after the EV service and support system is fully established, then you can go in for the EV.

The vehicle as such is good - but only until such time, it doesn't break down and this could happen for some simple reasons as well. In my case, the charging cable that they gave seems to be faulty. If there is a process for them to check it and re-issue one through warranty, the issue would have been resolved in half a day. Secondly, if there were enough charging stations, I could have used them - at least for driving the vehicle until such time the charging cable issue is solved. There aren't many Vida charging stations and though Ather stations can also charge, but I haven't tried them as yet.

Here are some pictures for your reference.

[GutsyGibbon]

Hi m2badri,
How is the scooter holding up? Could you please post another update? How many kms do you have on the scooter? How has the charging experience been?
-GG