Team-BHP - Okinawa Praise e-scooter to be launched in December 2017. Edit: Launched at Rs. 59,889

In January 2017, Okinawa Autotech launched the Ridge - its first electric scooter in India. The Gurgaon based company is now gearing up to launch its second e-scooter, the Praise in December 2017.

Okinawa Praise e-scooter to be launched in December 2017. Edit: Launched at Rs. 59,889-praise-creative-media.png

A teaser image of the Praise released by the company reveals a large V-shaped headlamp cluster with an integrated LED daytime running light (DRL) on the apron flanked by LED pilot lamps.

The image further reveals that the Praise is likely to get a telescopic fork front suspension that is finished in a golden shade. While the Ridge is offered with drum brakes, the Praise is likely to get a disc brake in the front. The e-scooter will come equipped with side stand sensors, an anti-theft sensor in the main stand and combi brakes.

The company claims that the Okinawa Praise has clocked the highest speed and the longest range yet achieved by an e-scooter. This means, it is expected to be quicker than the Ridge, which has a top speed of 55 km/h. It also means that it will have a longer range than the Ridge's 80-90 km on a single charge.

Pre-bookings for the Praise open on November 24, 2017. The booking amount has been set at Rs. 2,000.

Link to Team-BHP News

170 - 200 kms, this kind of range is unheard of! Hope the scooter lives up to the promises.

News link- https://auto.ndtv.com/news/okinawa-p...from=home-auto

The link mentions that the battery has a life of 2000 charge cycles. Does that mean if one charge gives you 170kms then the bike's battery would last for 340000kms? That's too high and seems a bit strange.

Attaching a screenshot from the Okinawa website.

I came across this article on the net and wondered "Okinawa" praise E- scooter launched in India. A city in Japan praises an e-scooter launched in India.
Japanese are ahead in terms of technology and most of our earlier motorbikes had Japanese collaboration.(TVS Suzuki, Kawasaki Bajaj, Hero Honda, Yamaha) What great thing has India done that the Japs are praising.
lol:
Then I figured it was the name of the bike model launched by an Indian manufacturer named Okinawa.

Coming to the specs. I can straightaway conclude that it offers bang for the buck. Mileage of 175 to 200 kms on a single charge is higher than a tankful on my current Wego.
Cost wise, the on road price is at par with most gasoline run scooters, running cost is lesser than 10% of the current cost. Looks wise great too, added features like front and rear disc brakes, tubeless tyres, LED lights, digital instrument cluster etc are good value adds.

Only points are infrastructure for charging. Many of us may not have a charging point in the basement of our apartment, I think the bike allows to detach the battery, take it to the charging point and re-assemble.

Service and spare parts of this bike is another question mark. The company has started operations in 2015, so still unknown quantity as far as service is concerned. But in a bike which may have about 15 parts with no oil or lubrication required, what can really go wrong?

I drove the hero electric bikes in my work place as part of a promotion. There is absolutely no sound or vibration to let you know the bike is on. Torque and acceleration was awesome too. Only downside I felt was the telescopic shock absorbers were not upto the mark and resulted in a relatively rough ride over speed breakers. Else, nothing wrong in shifting from IC to EV as this is the future.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hrman (Post 4325256)

Only points are infrastructure for charging. Many of us may not have a charging point in the basement of our apartment,

This particular point needs some serious discussion.

Very soon EVs will be upon us. We need to find a way how to go about installing chargers in apartment basements that are accessible to required parties.

Also concerned parties pay for the electricity usage rather than it become a part of common amenities bill.

Please share options and ideas.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fordday (Post 4325638)

Best is to have a detachable battery that you can carry to your home and charge overnight. Lot of us live in places which don't even have basements or for that matter, a proper parking. Then there is also the question of battery theft when parked outside :Frustrati

More important is how will this 170kms per charge fade with time? In two years, say, will it be down to 90kms per charge? It's somewhat naive to assume 170kms per charge across the 2000 charging cycles. It'll run down far earlier than that.

The specifications look promising to start with. What needs to be checked is the battery replacement cost, battery life/degradation in range over battery life cycle, service network etc. I would definitely go for this scooter, provided I get some real life user reviews/ownership report. I think a lot of us will keep this same approach! Let us hope that this product starts the ball rolling for EV's in the 2-wheeler segment in India!

FYI, For 59xxx you get Lead acid battery and I am unsure if 170-200KM range is valid for this battery. Praise with optional Li-ion battery costs 10K more. As per Autocar " lithium-ion battery will cost around Rs 10k more but will bring faster charge times and significantly lower weight. Peak torque figures are yet to be revealed. Okinawa also claims that the e-scooter will offer a comparatively high top speed of 75kph (the Ridge is capable of 55kph) and quick charging time of two hours (in the case of the Li-ion battery); standard charging time is quoted at six to eight hours."

https://www.autocarindia.com/bike-ne..._medium=Social

I think the disk brakes, and two of them both front & back, is kind of an overkill on a scooter, which wont go more than perhaps 60 kmph in its lifetime and would generally be driven at below 40-50 kmph. They should rather have regen braking systems to improve the range. Dont know why all EVs are going with disc brakes - maybe lower weight. Most existing ICE scooters have both drum brakes and they perform quite well.

Unlike the thought process at most of these companies, I think EVs would work better, much better in smaller towns / cities. Ironically, most of these EV makers seem to be focused on metros (Blr, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Delhi). People mostly stay in bunglows / rowhouses / G+1 houses and the multi-storey apartments are very less. Even when there are multi-storey apartments, they are less than G+4 / G+7, where getting your own charging socket on ground level (with a box & lock to avoid misuse) is much easier.

The battery & motor are the 2 major components in EV, just like Engine & gearbox (CVT) is in an ICE scooter. I would like them to offer a warranty on the battery & motor of 5 years to make the 'jump from proven to new technology' worth it. More so, since all the EV scooters available in the country (and there have been quite a number of companies) have been duds with batteries requiring expensive replacement in 2 years, costing 8-10k. The fuel savings do not even pay for the battery leave alone the entire scooter.