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-   -   Ola CEO: Our scooters lifespan is double that of petrol scooters (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/motorbikes/276529-ola-ceo-our-scooters-lifespan-double-petrol-scooters.html)

The Ola Electric CEO Bhavish Aggrawal is again in the news- now says Ola scooters have double the lifespan as compared to petrol scooters. He has also announced his new 8-year/ 80,000 kms warranty package. Ola Electric announced the 'Bharat EV Fest,' a nationwide initiative featuring discounts and battery warranty schemes.

While addressing concerns about electric vehicle longevity, Aggarwal assured that Ola scooters would outlast internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, with double the lifespan. Ola scooters will last twice the life of ICE vehicles, the CEO said.

Additionally, the company plans to establish more service centers nationwide. The electric vehicle maker's CEO also unveiled plans for 10,000 charging points in the upcoming quarter. Exchange value of Rs 10K would be given for old ICE scooters swapped for new Ola scooter purchases.

Full news here:-

https://m.economictimes.com/industry.../107352688.cms

Scooters were first introduced to the world during the World War II by Innocenti and Piaggio of Italy. Some of the oldest examples still survive. Lambrettas from Innocenti reached India by 1953, courtesy Automobile Products of India Ltd, while Vespas came along around 1958-59, courtesy Bajaj Auto Ltd. There are still many, many of the older Indian examples of Lambrettas and Vespas surviving. In a particular case, my 1963 Lambretta Li 150 Series II still survives by remaining fit and fine at SIXTY PLUS.

Going by the CEO's statement, the Ola scooters of today (2024) need to survive till 2144 AD to fully justify his utterance or assurance - that's 120 years, after taking the particular case of my 60 plus year old Lambretta, which will live on and on.

First of all, this is verbal assurance and hence subject to different interpretations one of which is given above.

IMHO, sensibly, it would have meant 'usable life' rather than 'actual lifespan'. Again it would be the AVERAGE and ignoring the meticulously maintained outliers.

The way one interprets things makes a lot of difference, The average lifespan of a petrol scooter in terms of kilometers covered is what is assumed here (60,000 km) and OLA promises upto 125,000 km (if you go for the additional km on the warranty package by paying 12,999 + GST), so in this sense, he is correct, moreover the average user doesn't hold on to a scooter for 8 years.

I feel this battery warranty provides great assurance to many prospective e-scooter buyers as the battery is the major cost component of these scooters and being assured for 8 years makes a world of difference (as compared to other players offering 3 years standard and just upto 5 years extended warranties). For example, the cost of a 4kwh battery from Ola is Rs.87,298/- and when comparing that to the costs of the OLA S1 4kwh of Rs.1,09,999/-, It is a substantial 79% of the total costs. as for the 3kwh battery, it costs Rs,66,549 and an Ola S1X 3kwh costs Rs.89,999/-, almost 74% of the total cost. However, These costs are in today's terms but battery technology is fast improving and these costs are likely to fall in the future, but still, the assurance has a great role to play here.

All of these are very enticing but the end user experience is far from from the reality when it comes to service or product quality. They need to fix it. Bring it upto atleast Ather which is also a small startup but somehow managed to maintain a high quality user experience in after sales, forget about Bajaj or TVS. I'll put my money immediately on Ola. I need an electric scooter but I'm not sure about the quality, safety or future of them. We are the majority. New head should focus on the service back up rather than marketing blitz and sales numbers.

I use my 2004 model Honda activa on a daily basis. It’s not in great shape(due to my neglect), but usable. I highly doubt any ola product would last that long.

I consider it a 'marketing and click bait' statement. We all know that ICE tech is so matured and stable that with decent care, ICE vehicles-whether Scooters, Bikes, Cars can easily last 15-20 years without any trouble at all. Maybe electric vehicles will last as much or more, but that is yet to be proved. At least to me, assurances- especially from Ola, mean nothing.

While there are many who have faced issues with the scooters made by Ola, there is also a lot of happy experiences which are not shared online but spreads through word of mouth which keeps ringing the new sales for Ola.

Personally I am very satisfied with what they are offering and at given price point it would be hard to ask for anything more. For a two wheeler owner it would be a dream to have not to spend on service or anything for 10k-20k kms. The after sales experience is something of a pain they have been working on and it's understandable considering they are not a legacy manufacturer with Industry experience, I still believe they will sort it out in a year or two.

The durability atleast for me looks long-term for my Ola S1 compared to Activa I have which rattles like anything in 2 years time and has almost Nil suspension. The Move Os 4 Ola released also has many features that enhances user experience (probably auto turn off indicator, zero regen, geo fencing etc with high level accuracy) would be first in 2 wheelers. This has also helped improve range.

With ICE vehicle your user experience will diminish with passage of time unless you upgrade but with EV they still can enhance your user experience even after years of purchase like mobile devices with OS updates.

My 12 years old Activa still runs like new and is also mechanicallly sound. Not sure if Ola can even outlast that ! May be it can survive, with battery replacement but whether it'd be durable enough to drive safely is a big question mark. I still remember a post somewhere in the forum about front wheel falling off during normal driving and Ola had to redesign front fork.

Although I am not surprised at any statement coming from him but Ola EV owners are best placed to answer that, the ultimate litmus test.

He is referring to the average numbers and not specific to exceptions, in realty 2Ws hardly do 50K Kms with a single owner and without half engine work done. Also he is referring to the current consumption pattern. Back in 90s families used to keep television and refrigerator for decades, today they have become a commodity, the same is true for automobiles. We had a 88 model Maruti800 till 2010 and 2003 model splendour till 2020. I do not think that era will come again

As any company head would do, there is some exaggeration in what Bhavish says, but I am not sure he may be very wide of the mark here. Normally, ICE scooters either don't last or not used for more than 1 lakh kms, with exceptions of course. As someone said, 50k to 75k is what looks like probable number for most. With a warranty of 1.25 lakh kms the most critical part in Ola Scooter can certainly outlast most scooters. And the build of Ola is more or less along the lines of normal scooters. And I believe electric motors, another major compenent of an EV scooter, has been researched and used for decades before an EV scooter came, so shouldn't be a major worry or can be easily repaired. And with battery technology evolving, the cost of battery should come down sharply by the time the warranty on Ola scooter battery is done.

The one area where Ola needa a lot of improvement is service and stable user interface. As a user of the scooter over the last 6 months I haven't faced any major issue till date apart from a cable issue. And as someone who has used scooters for the last decade or so and over 1 lakh kms for anyone who roughly knows their daily ride distance an EV scooter makes a lot of sense. I still have TVS Jupiter which has run around 50k in 5 years and a Maestro which has run some 15k, so I use them a lot and I prefer taking my Ola over the other 2.

I have Karizma zmr 2010 model with more than 1 lakh on the odometer and still running fine without any major issues,I doubt ola will last double than that. I have ola s1 pro and ather 450x in family, the built quality and feel of the ride of ather is better than ola, Ola just feels disconnected.