[shortbread]

https://youtu.be/6GIfckCgWBc

[Emvi]

Ola Electric scooter top speed run.

https://youtu.be/DLDWvuQ0tW0

While the top speed is super impressive, real world operating range is what matters the most. Not to mention the battery charging time.

[Sebring]

Operating range is foremost. Another thing I'm noticing is that these Ola videos are slick. But if you're looking at mass customers then, some drama is required. The current ads are all too 'aspirational'. Not sure if its the right way to go. Just thinking aloud

Originally Posted by Emvi

Ola Electric scooter top speed run. While the top speed is super impressive, real world operating range is what matters the most. Not to mention the battery charging time.

[Mafia]

Originally Posted by Sebring

Operating range is foremost. Another thing I'm noticing is that these Ola videos are slick. But if you're looking at mass customers then, some drama is required. The current ads are all too 'aspirational'. Not sure if its the right way to go. Just thinking aloud

The target audience in the initial years of launch is all in urban areas IMO. All clientele is plugged into social media. The target audience is also 16 to 25ish. T

The ads seem to represent an international product that will be sold globally without much change.

I suppose the slickness can also be attributed to Avengers(Marvel). They have been around and having a social influence on a generation for 14-15 years in movies.

[Raghuwire]

Disclaimer- The following post is purely IMHO, no offense meant to anyone:

Would want to start off this post by my pitch to Ola 2 plus years back when I applied for a job there. At that time there was no big splash about Ola 2W EVs nor was their factory in existance. This was my solution to their strategy of when, where and which Electric 2 wheeler to launch.

The slight upgrade on the battery specs and power shows what VC money can do and the slowly reducing prices of batteries. (Of course no scooter should be allowed to go above 100, the speed should be electrically limited)

Coming to the bike - No doubt it looks really good on paper. But how does it stack up in real world performance, has to be seen. Ola is a first time manufacturer, how does it handle the fit and finish, can the netherland model handle indian potholes and heat and dust, Can the monoshock in the front work? All these questions will be answered slowly but surely.

Will it sell? Depends too much on strategy. Every 2 wheeler electric vehicle manufacturer wants to start off from selling in the major cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad, etc. and want to target it at the young! WHY? I think this is one of the biggest fallacies of EV strategy in India. I have following reasons and observations for the same belief:
1. I stay in RR nagar in Bangalore - A retirement haven, most own the house they stay in, covered parking and less mobile compared to the young IT crowd- Result - I see Nexon EVs, Athers, i-cube, ZS EV, low powered Electric 2 wheelers. The density of EVs here is phenomenal.
2. Today's young in tier-1 cities- Wrong target group - Live in Coliv, rented space, small individual houses with no covered parking etc. - Very tough to setup a charging infra there. Imagine if you move, you again have to do all the circus of EV charging. THe actual effort may or maynot be taxing - But imagine your landlord says - nope, no drilling and cabling, what do you do? this was one of the reason I cancelled my Nexon EV booking. Not range, not warranty, not performance.
3. Tier 2 cities - Best place to target - Our tenant in Mysore is staying from a decade in the same house, so are the other owners and residents. they are less mobile, even a job shift does not mean, u move ur residence in tier-2 cities. So, I am more at peace installing and owning and using an EV.
4. Ather - Pathetic reach. Even today, I dont know where all Ather operates.Nor is their pathetic website clear on it (I use in my mobile, and I could not find it). At my In laws place in Goa - we have a Nexon EV, when we were looking for a 2W EV, Ather was not operating in Goa. Why, Goa is one of the best places to own and even start a EV rental business. How tough is it for you to open a franchise in Goa and start business. The whole Idea of controlling EV experience is strangling them. Ola has no showrooms, home delivery of EV. Operate in much larger geography ASAP. Tata is selling EVs, and they did not invest in making a grid as it was not required in Goa, the grid will come up slowly, why fret!

[sri_tesla]

Robots at work in Ola Electric's factory. These robots are from ABB. Earlier this year, Ola selected ABB for robotics and automation solutions.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1429094767149735949

Excerpt from the press release at the start of the year:

Ola will utilize ABB’s automation solutions in its factory’s key manufacturing process lines, including its painting and welding lines, while the ABB robots will be deployed extensively for the battery and motor assembly lines. These include ABB’s IRB 5500 paint and IRB 2600 Integrated Dressing robots in its painting and welding lines, and IRB 6700 robots for assembly and material handling in the battery and motor assembly areas.

The mega-factory is also expected to be the country’s most automated, with about 5,000 robots and automated guided vehicles in use once the factory is fully operational to its full capacity.

[shortbread]

Some insight into OLAs sales and servicing strategies:

SERVICING

The company has shared the steps that will have to be followed in order to get the scooter serviced. The service booking will be made from the official application for the scooter. The company will then assign an “Ola Champion" to conduct the service, along with an estimated time of arrival. The servicing will be done at home by the assigned technician.

The scooter will also use Predictive AI maintenance where users will get alerts prompting for a service or a repair via the phone.

So the servicing will be outsourced to freelancers, similar to how OLA sources drivers/vehicles to operate as cabs. The technician/champion will come to the owners premises to do the services, and he will be equipped with the necessary tools/spares.

-ves: service could be hit or miss fully dependent on the efficiency of the technician. Complains will be dealt with digitally, rather than have a face to face interaction like in a authorised service station.

- The initial inexperience can be a challenge.

+ves: Immense flexibility, servicing comes to you rather than having to go in search of it. Get ones OLA scooter serviced at home, work, wherever...

- should be more cost effective, unlike service stations that carry massive overheads/targets. Hopefully owners will not be pushed like dealerships looking to upsell services.

- ability to choose our technician/champion based on feedback/rating. Finding the right guy would be a big blessing for long term ownership.

SALES

The company has received bookings from over 1000 Indian cities and Ola plans to begin the delivery process for all regions simultaneously.

The company plans to make the delivery process completely unconventional. Ola plans to deliver the scooters to the buyer's home.

Ola has claimed that it will sell its scooters through an omnichannel model, including both online and offline experience centres that it is in the process of setting up. Ola Electric aims to have one experience centre in every city over the next three months.

So test-drive, touch and feel points could be set up at popular destinations like malls etc. Considering how big digital retail has become in India, I don't think this form of sales will face major challenges. Only thing is the neighborhood will notice one taking delivery of a new scooter, won't be discreet!

https://www-livemint-com.cdn.ampproj...ABIIACAw%3D%3D

[harisankarsony]

For people who want to know about warranty details

I had enquired Ola customer support about the vehicle and warranty details a few days back. Today, I recieved a call-back from them. The representative said that the battery warranty would be 3 years or 40000 kms, but the vehicle warranty details cannot be revealed now.
This information is not available on their website yet. Maybe they will update it soon.

[Axe77]

Originally Posted by shortbread

Some insight into OLAs sales and servicing strategies:

SERVICING
So the servicing will be outsourced to freelancers, similar to how OLA sources drivers/vehicles to operate as cabs. The technician/champion will come to the owners premises to do the services, and he will be equipped with the necessary tools/spares.

In one word: DISRUPTIVE!

Whether they will make it work or not is another matter and it will come with its own operational challenges but I’m fascinated how Ola overall has approached its EV strategy.

- Big capex investments at the back end product front.
- Continued capex on places that matter a lot like charging infra.
- Minimal dealer interface also perhaps means greater margins on the sale side to the company.
- Outsourcing service which is not unusual and already the case for many other products, leveraging on the relative simplicity of EV scooters compared to their ICE counterparts or even compared to EV cars. My dell laptop purchased for about 70k had some warranty issues. I realised its completely being handled by an outsourced service provider. It is no different for other high end consumer electronics goods like TVs, ACs, fridges etc. There is no reason that an EV scooter can’t adopt a similar business model.

What they will need to ensure to succeed.

- Tight training and vendor selection for these outsourced components which will ensure that users get a consistent and high quality service experience. Their model on retaining control over these service providers is critical

- An effective and high quality back end call Center that ensure suitable issue and complaint resolution framework where users are unhappy with any aspect of service. Of course, the service interface itself should be relatively low touch given its an EV.

Early experiences matter as they will create brand perceptions for a long time to come, whether positive or negative. The fact that this product will appeal to a lot of younger people or enthusiastic early adopters of new tech also means they will hopefully be open to embracing new models of sales / service. Ola must ensure that they are absolutely pat on this aspect of the customer experience.

Let’s see how this plays out for them. If this works, it will be one of the milestone disruptive events of a how a vehicle is sold and serviced and one of the biggest catalysts of EV adoption. I expect more disruptive behaviour and ideas from new and existing players in this journey where one day vehicle ownership could of course move entirely to a subscription based model.

[nairrk]

Smart onboard sensors communicate with your phone to unlock as you approach and lock as you leave

https://youtu.be/jKdaEbUNzSw?t=7

[stallmaster]

Hero and Bajaj Haven’t Disrupted India’s Electric Two-Wheeler Market. Will Ola Electric Succeed? An elucidative article by Vivek Kaul.

https://www.livemint.com/mint-top-ne...s27082021.html

[Mafia]

This is the Kodak moment!

Ola has captured the imagination of the masses unlike the other manufacturers. Aether paved the way some what. Ola has electrified the way (pun intended).

3 or 5 years down the line we will definately look back and wonder why the bigger manufaturers dragged their feet to adapt early.

This step is inevitable. Electric scooters are surely the future of scooters. Scooters are used mostly in the city. Most for runs less than 100kms a day. Current prices of regular fuels are not conducive for users. A good viable substitute is electric.

Currently the established manufatrures are not geared up for the actual demand in the market for reliable products. Urban areas will lead the demand. Rural will catucup once infrastructure in place.

[shortbread]

Originally Posted by stallmaster

Hero and Bajaj Haven’t Disrupted India’s Electric Two-Wheeler Market. Will Ola Electric Succeed? An elucidative article by Vivek Kaul.

https://www.livemint.com/mint-top-ne...s27082021.html

Thanks stallmaster.

Anyone planning to read the ten thousand odd words of pure gibberish, let me spare you the trouble and time.

Hero and Bajaj Haven’t Disrupted India’s Electric Two-Wheeler Market

Firstly I'm hoping the author knows which Hero he's talking about. Second the majors who did launch electric scooters are TVS & Bajaj.

So, correcting this question....TVS and Bajaj haven’t Disrupted India’s Electric Two-Wheeler Market.

- Well did TVS and Bajaj really want to disrupt the market and ruin a highly profitable status quo?
- Why would a market disruptive product only be launched in two cities in the whole of India? Can one imagine Bajaj only selling the new Pulsar in two cities for the first year?
- Why would a market disruptive product have it's price hiked by 25-30% in its nascent stages.

But, of course, consistent electric supply itself remains a problem in many parts of the country. And this will make many people think twice before they buy electric vehicles.

It's not a fridge that needs to be plugged in 24/7. Electricity availability is constantly improving in India. Plus scooters have max. penetration in urban centres whereinh

Then there is the lack of availability of good local mechanics for electric vehicles. Every time something happens to the two-wheeler, it might entail a visit to the manufacturer’s service centre, which normally tends to be expensive. Of course, all this will improve in the years to come

No oil leaks, no filter changes, no sparks, no combustion, no gears...... It's a battery and a motor, the simplicity helps with it's reliability. This also means it's easier to service/maintain at the owners premises. Which is precisely what OLA plans to do.

Ola has two scooter models Ola S1 and Ola S1 Pro, which are priced at Rs 99,999 and Rs 1,29,999, respectively, these prices are on the higher side when compared to the conventional fossil fuel powered scooters. The high price continues to remain the biggest factor holding back the adoption of electric vehicles in India. For the price of electric vehicles to fall, battery prices need to drop.

Which conventional scooter? A decent 125 scooter with comparable performance is in the Rs 75-80k range with no subsidies! OLAs introductory prices are certainly not on the 'higher side', especially taking into account what it offers.

In addition to this, there are calculations going around on WhatsApp that show that the electric scooter might turn out to be a better bet monetarily over a period of time than the conventional scooter that runs on fossil fuel. There are a few things that need to be kept in mind here.


One is that these calculations take the government subsidy on offer in a few states into account. Second, the number of years the battery will last is the most crucial assumption in deciding whether the electric scooter is a better bet than the conventional one. If the assumption is five years, the calculation might work in favour of the electric scooter.

Modern batteries are very reliable and don't wither away with time. Also with age IC engines tend to need a lot more TLC.

There is also a China angle at play. If China can take to electric vehicles in a major way, why can’t we? The answer to this lies in the fact that the Chinese per capita income at $8,405 is much higher than that of India’s at $1,961 (GDP per capita (constant 2010 dollars)). So, the ability of an average Chinese to buy an electric vehicle is higher than that of an average Indian.

OLA is targeting the same prospective buyers who purchase petrol scooters. If the average chinese has more income, good for them.

why have the incumbents like Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto and TVS Motor Co.

They already have made very big bets and stepping up the competition, the author needs to do some research. Finally MINT needs to fine a better economist.

[Gansan]

^^ Eliminate the engine and gear box (and liquid cooling system in some models), you eliminate about 70% of the parts in a vehicle. The EV will require very little servicing, and what is required may be carried out at the owner's place by a technician. Perhaps once a year.

[saisree]

Originally Posted by shortbread

the author needs to do some research

Please someone send this post to Vivek Kaul and open up his brain. Also please find where he has done his MBA so that we can be wary of that university