Troubled by my scooter's poor fuel efficiency: Should I buy an Ola S1

The current fuel economy of my Honda Aviator is around 33-35 km/l. We also have a solar setup at home. Would an electric scooter make sense?

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Hello, BHPians!

I am in a dilemma here, I have two scooters at home, a 2014 Scooty Streak and a 2016 Honda Aviator, both have run less than 20,000 km to date as most of our running has been with our cars ever since 2020, but now the situation has changed where all our vehicles including both our cars will be out during weekdays, so my wife is using the Scooty which gives her excellent mileage and suits her well, she is under 5 feet tall and feels most comfortable with the Scooty, My dad drives the Seltos to work, my brother drives the Sonet to work and I have been using the Aviator for a while now.

The Aviator is an excellent scooter and one of the best 110cc options available when we bought it in 2016, the suspension, the ride height, and other features were all we could ask for then, but over the years, it has developed a few scars and needs a slight touch up too. However, the major factor leading me to consider an upgrade to the Aviator is the mileage.

Initially, I used to get around 40 to 42 kmpl mileage but now over the past year or so, it has been hovering in the mid-30s (33 to 35 kmpl), which is simply too low. my daily commute is over 34 km and I need at least 1 litre of fuel per day. and a full tank of fuel (6-litre tank) barely lasts me a week (6 working days) and I usually have to refuel by the last day of the week (I am not happy to ride the scooter in the last 1-litre reserve). So with petrol prices in my city at Rs. 108.25 per litre, it costs me over Rs.541.25 for 5 days which over the month comes to a fuel bill of over Rs.3500 a month (including a few weekend runabouts).

So I was thinking, am I riding poorly or would any maintenance or service help or is there something wrong with the scooter and should I sell my scooter and get an e-scooter?

Another reason I am contemplating an e-scooter is that we have solar at home and have only used it for around half of the total production and we could save on fuel bills because we are generating our electricity, so charging is free.

Now with these factors in mind, I was searching for a few options and stumbled upon the Ola S1X+ now available at Rs.89,999 ex-showroom after a limited period Rs.20,000 discount. Now the on-road price comes to Rs.1,08,179, I am getting deals for my scooter around Rs.40,000 as well, so I would have to shell out an additional Rs.68,000 for the new scooter which seems reasonable, moreover considering an advertised range of 151km, and even if I hardly get 100km in eco mode, I can still get 3 days on a full charge, and with charging not an expense due to the solar, this seems like a good deal. Considering the monthly Rs.3500 petrol expenses I am incurring, I would be able to recover this additional Rs.68,000 in less than 2 years.

So with all these considerations, should I take the plunge or is there more than meets the eye? Am I being too optimistic about the prospect of an Ola E-scooter or should I hold on to my Aviator? What are the other factors I need to consider?

I need the advice of the forum on all these matters.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Here's what BHPian Bhargav7 had to say about the matter:

The advertised range for the 2kw battery pack is 91Kms. The 3kw version with a range of 151 km is priced at another 10k premium.

On the commercials, you are going to save approximately 40 odd thousand per year in fuel based on your travel. Assuming a battery life of 50k kilometers (debatable), this scooter will last you around 5 years. So the IRR of this will be around 50-55% for the 2kw version and around 40-45% for the 3kw version. Those are pretty good numbers.

The other thing you really need to consider is travelling 34 kms daily on a scooter. At some point, your back is going to hurt really bad. if you have a good budget, you should use a car - EV or otherwise.

Here's what BHPian shancz had to say about the matter:

I will try to answer all of them but in a different way.

• Aviator : Getting low FE on a sparingly used scooter is expected but can be fixed with simple air-fuel-spark checks. Worst case you might need to change the carb in case it can't be recovered post a clean.
• Economy : Make sure that the difference between the price of the Aviator and a new EV makes sense based on your expected usage in the near future.

Reading through your post I somehow get a feeling that the EV is more of a want.

If you can afford it then go for it, it will be a nice change and IMO EV scooters are the safest bet to try out EVs provided you get one of the good ones which are :

• Ather 450S/X : sporty, check for service centers

• TVS iQube : comfortable
• Chetak : if available at your location
• Vida : No idea on this
• Ola S1 : I don't like it as a product so I will leave it for you to decide. Check the forum for ownership reviews.

Factors to consider :

• If you're not going to use it for long (>1 year) then it doesn't make sense to buy a new scooter and park it later as newer scooters with FI are a pain to manage due to battery and starting issues. Your Aviator is simple and carbureted, doesn't get simpler than this.

Here's what BHPian ComicCharcoal had to say about the matter:

A TVS iQube owner here. After reading about your daily usage of 34 km / 6 days a week, I would strongly recommend you buy an electric scooter.

My usage at around 30Kms per day, 5 days a week. In less than a year, my iQube has run 7500 km. Had it been a petrol vehicle, I would have spent 7500 * ₹3 = ₹22500. Electricity (home charging) charges for me are around ₹1500 for 7500 km. Even with paying for electricity, it makes sense for me. With free electricity, you should definitely go for an e-scooter.

Also, the maintenance cost of petrol scooters is way higher than E-scooters. Even assuming battery change after 4-5 years of usage, E-scooters make economic sense. The current price of the iQube battery is around ₹36k.

My only worry is your choice of scooter. I have 2 friends who bought Ola S1 / S1 pro and both of them had issues with the software, like the dickey not opening, the scooter stopping suddenly, etc. So, I went for the safer option of iQube, and have had zero issues so far. But, I should also mention I did test drive Ola scooters as well and found that they had a better ride quality than others.

I recommend you test drive the iQube, chetak and Ola S1X and then decide. I find the Ather overpriced.

Here's what BHPian RD410 had to say about the matter:

I have a Dio HET of similar vintage, run 36k kms. It still gives me FE between 45-52 kpl in the city and upto 55 kpl on highways. FE was not this good initially. These are the things I did to improve FE:

• Shifted to Castrol 5w40 fully synthetic engine oil. This oil totally changed the scooter's performance and efficiency.
• Using Yamaha PEA carbon cleaner every 5k kms. It cleans the fuel lines, internals of the carburettor and engine head. It's cheap, just costs ₹170. Comes in a 50ml bottle which needs to be added to a full tank of petrol.
• Changing the spark plug every 15k kms and making sure that the spark plug used is NGK MR7C-9N high ignitability plug and not NGK CPR8EA-9N. The former is what HET models require and the latter one is for older pre-HET models. But 90% of the time mechanics / SVCs put non-HET plugs in HET scooters because MR7C-9N is not available everywhere.
• Check tyre air pressure every week. These Honda rims and tubeless tyres lose air very quickly and that badly affects pickup and FE.

But if you really want an EV, I won't suggest Ola at all. It's still a work in progress, even the Gen 2 models have so many software, hardware and structural issues. Go for Ather or TVS iQube or Revolt RV400. The Revolt with its motorcycle form factor should be much better for daily commutes.

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