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Satisfied with my new Ola S1 Pro apart from its one shortcoming

24th April 2024, 12:06 by Utkarsh Chaudhary

The electric scooter gets many things right but falls behind in one crucial department. If that is rectified, I'd be a happy customer.

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Finally got my Ola S1 Pro delivered on the day of Maha Shivaratri

Delivery experience & the good, bad & ugly

After almost 3 months of deliberation, several queries, questions, test rides, and price quotes taken, I finally bought the OLA S1 PRO GEN 2 on my birthday and got the delivery on Maha Shivaratri Day.

The Experience Centre staff told me that my vehicle was ready to deliver at around noon, and I told them I would take delivery around 4:30 pm.

When I reached there for delivery, the showroom was full of customers, many getting their delivery, others who had come to book and so on, the staff was running around here and there, I was way back in line, and with the demonstration process taking a lot of time for every customer, I told them that I just want the formalities done quickly and I will take my scooter home, they obliged and I was off to my home with my New Matte White S1 PRO GEN 2.

The scooter performed well on my trip home with everything working as expected, including the proximity unlocks, OLA App, ride modes, etc, but sadly the OS was still MOVE OS 3 and they hadn't updated it. I updated the scooter once I reached home, and along with it came a dozen more features, including hill hold, hill descent, OLA Maps, Fall Detection, Tamper Detection, Concert Mode, A new Care Mood, Auto cut off indicators, regen-off setting, and many more.

I tested all of these features and most of these new features work well, except the Proximity Unlock (which is still in BETA in Move OS 4) which works sometimes.

Now coming to the bad and ugly, the fit and finish are mediocre, to say the least with visible panel gaps and a huge panel gap in the mudguard above the tire. This is a serious QC issue and should be taken care of.

I immediately reported the same via the OLA app and received a call from the service center (not the one I bought it from as they don't handle these issues) and was asked to bring in my vehicle for panel refitting on 13th March, I obliged.

Now coming to my overall experience over the last 3 days, I could say, the scooter gets many things right including range (150 km+), battery, storage, loads of features (Concert Mode, Party Mode, Maps, App-based controls, etc), The ride, handling, etc are good too with it doing well over bad patches of road, acceleration is also brisk and you get varying levels of regen which helps you brake effectively and forced regen as well which works by twisting the throttle in the opposite direction.

However, it lacks in one crucial department, quality control. The build is acceptable, but how can you fit panels in such a haphazard manner, I could put my finger through the gap in the front panel above the tire. The other panel gaps however are within a tolerable limit, moreover, there is a slight issue with paint too. As there is a noticeable line on the side of the scooter where there is a slight difference in paint, these issues have more to do with the carelessness and lack of quality control at OLA. Moreover, today, while I was reversing I suddenly noticed an error "Scooter Issue, Please restart the Scooter", I don't know what caused this but it went away after a restart.

So, I will be updating my observations after the service center visit, but so far, I am satisfied with the scooter apart from this one major flaw. If this is corrected, I can say I will be a happy customer. Hopefully, more issues don't crop up and I am praying for a hassle-free ownership experience going forward.

Image of the Front of the scooter before delivery