Thinking to buy an Ola S1 Air? An owner advises to put off your plans

The electric scooter has many issues and the service is horrible. I'd say get something better like an Ather, TVS or Chetak.

BHPian vivekgk recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Hi,

I am one of those "Early Adopters" a.k.a Test Mules for the new Ola S1 Air. I booked mine in July, paid full price upfront, endured ever-changing delivery timelines, and after a frankly disappointing and lacklustre delivery experience, finally took delivery of my S1 Air on 27th September. It cost me just under 1.38 lacs OTR at Trivandrum, with full cover insurance, the extended warranty and the Ola Care+ package. At the time, it was a good deal considering every other comparable option was more than 1.5 lacs.

Since this was my first EV, I was initially pleasantly surprised. It was smooth, the ride and handling was great, and it had good performance on offer in all modes, considering what it cost. As I was riding a 15-year-old Mahindra Flyte before, this was quite an upgrade in every way. I did find it a bit too tall for my height, but it was otherwise OK. The switchgear was terrible, and the touch screen was occasionally slow to respond, but that I could live with.

The Flies in the Soup

But all was not perfect. I was not getting the promised range. Although the scooter showed 100 kms+ range in NORMAL mode after a full charge, it dropped off very rapidly. It even dropped off abnormally when parked. I'd park it in our office basement in the morning, and come back in the evening to see a 3-5% or more battery drop.

Another issue was that the touch screen would sometimes stop responding, an issue that would usually resolve after a reboot, as instructed by the app. Sometimes though the scooter would seem to get stuck in the reboot loop, with the OLA logo turning off and on repeatedly. This was fixed by the technicians by restarting again.

I also faced an issue where the horn and the switches stopped working. Somehow I managed to get it working after a couple more reboots and got it to a service centre. They checked it, and I caught a mechanic saying how "this one too is having the same issue" to someone over the phone. They said they fixed it and gave the scooter back to me within 20 minutes. That issue hasn't recurred.

Once, I forgot to charge the scooter and set off to the office when there was just about 25% charge remaining. My office is just 3 kms away, so I didn't think it would be an issue. I reached the office with about 20% remaining. However, in the evening, the charge had dropped to about 15%. And to my horror, it jerked and stopped when I tried to start it for the ride home. I called the dealer for assistance, and they said that it should be able to go till at least 2-3% before cutting off. I finally took an Uber home, retrieved the charger, returned to the office and plugged it in at the Security Guards' room where there was an outlet. The next morning, the charge had only gone upto 74% despite it having been plugged in for at least 8 hours. This happened for the next couple of charges, with the screen showing "Unable to Charge" after about 70-75%.

Somehow, this issue disappeared on its own and the scooter started charging to 100% again. I had a mostly uneventful week after that.

A Preview of Things to Come?

Then, a couple of weeks ago, while I was riding in Eco mode with about 30% charge remaining, the scooter lost power in mid-traffic. I checked the screen and it showed something like "0% charge remaining, switching to park mode". Luckily, I was able to pull to the roadside without any incident. The screen now showed 0% battery. I was completely stranded and with no warning. Once I regained my composure, I rebooted the scooter, and Bam, the charge was now showing 23%. I cancelled the trip and limped back home in Eco mode, and put the scooter to charge. I also reported the issue on my Ola app.

The Real Nightmare Begins

A couple of days later, I was about to leave for the office in the morning with a remaining charge of 50%, when the scooter again just jerked and stopped. I tried rebooting, but this time it was of no use. And that's how I was introduced to the nightmare of Ola Service.

I immediately requested emergency assistance, but no one responded even by noon. Finally, I called their customer care, who assured me that they would send out a technician to diagnose the issue. I also called the dealership (who wouldn't give a contact number for the service team) and they too promised to send out a tech. This calling went on for about 3 days, with me calling and begging customer care every day before they sent someone to check out the scooter. In between, I visited the service centre, and the staff there were unable to help as they were understaffed.

I had taken RSA with Ola Care+, which has unlimited pickup and puncture assistance. But the funny thing is that they do not prioritise your pickup if your vehicle is at a safe parking spot or home. While this does make sense, it is frustrating to have to waste several days and repeated calls to customer care for someone to attend to your issue.

The person who came to check out the Scooter confirmed that it was a battery issue, and asked me to inform the service centre to initiate a pickup. Again, I started calling customer care, the dealer, and the service centre repeatedly for another 3 days, before they would initiate a Tow. The Tow service took another couple of days to pick up the Scooter and take it to the service centre.

Since then, I have been calling them every day to ask about the status of the scooter. Initially, they answered the phone and told me that the Battery Pack had to be replaced and that it had not yet been approved. Apparently, 11 S1 Air scooters are at the dealership, waiting for a battery replacement, and it does not seem to be happening any time soon.

So that's the story of how I spent 1.4 lacs on an Ola S1 Air, to use it for about a month (actual use). Now it's at the service centre for God knows how long, and the Service Centre is now refusing to answer my calls or call me back.

Personally, I would advise anyone who is planning to buy an Ola right now to put it off or buy something better, like an Ather, a Chetak, or a TVS. The Gen2 seems to have glaring issues, and Ola seems to have learnt little from their debacle with the Gen 1s. And their service is as horrible as the YouTube videos make it out to be. I had spoken to a couple of owners who said they had not had any issues, but apparently, if you have a real issue, you're out of luck.

If anyone has any pull with someone at Ola, please help me out to get my scooter repaired.

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