[hothatchaway]

Saw two youngsters zipping around on a powder blue ola scooter inside the South City complex in South Kolkata around noon today. Could not stop them to ask for details or even take pictures.

[null]

How much is the insurance quote for the Ola S1 (₹99999) model? Was told it is likely to be ₹6600. But if we buy insurance on our own, it comes to ₹4000-4200. And I think they were charging additional for helmets as well (which can be removed I understand from some comments here).

Also, did anyone complete the payment for the scooter today? It redirects to the app and app doesn't show anything about the scooter for me :( will try after going home!

So, any means to save the additional ₹2000-2500 that is being charged extra on their preferred insurance (icici?) by buying on our own?

[muni]

Have test ridden the Ola scooter today in Bangalore. They have rented the weworks space of the Prestige Building ground floor just after the Koramangala Forum Mall towards MG road side.

It was a short ride of 1Km or so and there were plenty of Ola representatives to help and were doing a good job. Things were being managed all right.

Observations

Positives:

1) Well packaged scooter overall for the price and the range it offers.
2) The pickup and response is pretty good especially the hyper mode( Hope that's what it is called!!)
3) Big Display shows a lot of information
4) Large Storage space
5) Compliant ride and slightly on the firmer side.
6) Handsome looking scooter
7) Easy to Ride scooter
8) Nice color options with a good looking paint job.
9) Braking felt adequate and good in the wet conditions.

Negatives:

1) In some places, the quality felt a little ordinary like the luggage hook has very sharp edges and will have to watch out while operating. Grab rails seemed like they were not bolted properly and had some play.
2) Panel gaps are visible in some places although not wide.
3) Switchgear feels rubbery and not premium.
4) No fast charger option provided by Ola.
5) Would have preferred a mechanical key for locking the scooter. Not a big fan of controlling it by mobile and concerned how it will be used by all. The inbuilt SIM and network coverage dependency and the sort can pose issues.
6) Reverse gear is a gimmick for the weight of the scooter. You press a button and wring it the opposite direction gently.
7) Most of the body is ABS plastic and maybe prone to breakage especially underbelly which doesn't look like it has a very high ground clearance
8) MRF 110/70 12 Inch Zapper on both wheels felt like it was pretty hard. May have been over inflated also.

Some pics:

[Axe77]

Originally Posted by muni

Have test ridden the Ola scooter today in Bangalore.

Observations

Positives:
4) Large Storage space

Thanks. Hope more members will also post their riding impressions.

One question here: do you recall if it can fit either a full face or a “normal size” half face helmet inside. My pet peeve with most scooters is they can’t even fit a normal size half face inside.

[fuzzydealhunter]

My payment experience has been good so far. Paid up the balance via credit card. The sms and emails confirming the payment for scooter and insurance came in almost instantaneously. Their choice of insurance partner seems to be ICICI Lombard. The colour I picked is Matt Black for the ones who are curious.

I have spoken to the support number they had provided recently and they have said you can cancel the booking up until the scooter leaves the factory for delivery and the amount is 100% refundable. Not my first electric vehicle so I am pretty excited for when test drives open in Kerala.

Though I did find it odd that they are offering to send a electrician to your house to set up the charging point for you at a price (Rs 2399 I think) but the charger by default does not come with a holder. I think thats pretty stupid. The charger should by default come with a holder. Does Ola expect everyone to dangle the massive brick from plug points? I think the sensible thing would be to offer people the mount as an add-on. I am pretty sure 3rd party solutions will be coming in fast and furious on amazon!

[deep_bang]

The one thing that worries me is the mono shock absorber. How good or bad does it seem when actually riding it? @muni or someone who has test driven can help?

[muni]

Originally Posted by Axe77

Thanks. Hope more members will also post their riding impressions.

One question here: do you recall if it can fit either a full face or a “normal size” half face helmet inside. My pet peeve with most scooters is they can’t even fit a normal size half face inside.

What I am sure is it can take 2 half sized helmets. The professional full face LS2 helmets or the kind wont fit I believe. They dint allow us to get our helmets to check. Cannot say for certain. But the space on offer is pretty good for other purposes like grocery shopping, keeping small stuff etc

[saikishor]

The S1 has a plastic chassis construction if I am not wrong. How will it age with time? How will one deal with it in case of a crash?

[muni]

Originally Posted by deep_bang

The one thing that worries me is the mono shock absorber. How good or bad does it seem when actually riding it? @muni or someone who has test driven can help?

I did some check on the build quality and it looked pretty good to me with the right diamater and size. Tested by the normal compression by pressing the handle bars that we do when its static and it doesn't move that much like bikes with 2 telescopic shocks. I did try to go on bad surfaces and it felt alright with a hint of firmness. I dint find much of vibrations and shocks on the handle bars for sure. Nothing that would make you take note in a negative way.

Am impressed at the level of innovation in design and mounting on the shock absorbers both front Single hydraulic and rear transverse spring setup. Etergo guys should get the credit. Long term reliability is a question that we dont know for sure as I suspect Ola guys dint test it extensivey.

Originally Posted by saikishor

The S1 has a plastic chassis construction if I am not wrong. How will it age with time? How will one deal with it in case of a crash?

It has big ABS plastic panels and not too many to avoid vibrations. The repair /replacement costs maybe high . The underbelly seems like it will take some hits during usage and may need some kind of protection with something to take that initial hit rather than the entire belly.

One more thing I found as slightly strange/Odd was in the test bike, the bike would not accelerate when you brake unlike how we do in regular scooters/bikes. I had to consciously not press the brake lever in stop go traffic. Wonder ow they did those tyre burnouts shown in the videos.
Other who test ride can confirm this behavior.

Other tid bits.

The chasis number is there below the right side foot mat, It was manufactured in this month November only.
The Charging port is at the rear.
The seat is pretty wide and can easily accommodate large people.
There were no information on accessories,
They claimed that the Speakers are IP67 rated and is located below the handle. I think it will be a nuisance if you can play music out of it.
The matte finish scooters look pretty good.

They are recording feedback after the test rides and not sure whether they will make any changes in the production models for anything that needs improvement. They wont have enough time to engineer changes at the Nth minute. They dint share any real world range except for the claimed range on the site.


Mod Note : Please use the EDIT or QUOTE+ (multi-quote) button instead of typing one post after another on the SAME THREAD!

[shortbread]

@ muni

Thanks for the review.

Does the seat look like it can accommodate two riders, with the rear rider sitting sideways as commonly seen in India?

This I think is a big factor for scooters in the Indian market.

[LiCoO2]

Does anyone know what charging connector is it? It looks like GB/T but I am not too sure.



Hopefully they won't replicate what Ather did and create there own proprietary charging connector.

It's still annoying that they are not using CCS as all the EV cars like Tata Nexon EV and ZS EV are using CCS.

[arvishnu]

Test ride reviews have started to pop up in Youtube, below is one but in Kannada

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6w0cNdazm0

[fuzzydealhunter]

Originally Posted by LiCoO2

Attachment 2231880

Attachment 2231879

Hopefully they won't replicate what Ather did and create there own proprietary charging connector.

It's still annoying that they are not using CCS as all the EV cars like Tata Nexon EV and ZS EV are using CCS.

Most EVs in India right now use CCS2 charging ports.

I highly doubt people would need to charge their scooters outside when the S1 pro has a claimed range of 180km. I think the way to go is for everyone to charge scooters at home or in office. When you are always starting with a 100% its tough to need a public charger. Also the likelihood of doing more than 200km is much higher in an 4 wheeler and thus the need for public charging stations, that caters to them. I don't think this need applies to scooters with good range.

The most important problem to resolve will be how to get apartment dwellers a plug point so they can charge their EVs in their parking slots.

[hemanth.anand]

Took a test ride of the Ola S1Pro Yesterday and here is my experience



What I liked about the scooter:

• The looks - It just Looks like EVA from the movie Wall-E and that's why i had chosen white colour only during the advance payment too
• The range-It should satisfy a lot of people...those who want to charge weekly once, those who ride a lot within the city or if you have some sudden plan changes.
• Rear suspension - Many people were wary of the horizontal shock absorbers. I knew it shouldn't hamper the performance greatly and it lived up to my expectations from a city scooter. Overall a good ride quality
• The seat height - I'm 5'7" but my 5' wife also found it really comfortable for her height.
• Colour options-I saw the Matte Grey, Gloss black, Gloss white, Gloss red, some kind of light blue... I liked the red, white and matte grey
• Touchscreen dashboard - It was just smooth (hope it stays that way)
• To a certain extent Hyper mode - It has wonderful power but felt there was jerk/lag too

What I didn't like about the scooter:

• Plastics - The first thing I didn't like about this is the plastic material. It felt like the one used in the water filter at office. Not sure if this is because we have a Vespa and Ather 450 at home but I expected better quality plastics. It felt like it was from a much cheaper vehicle.
  
• Poor build quality - We are the final customers and I expected a much ready vehicle. It was more of a pre-production vehicle. Panel gaps were inconsistent, The USB port had a big hole, the USB port covering flap was so flimsy that it came off when I tried to open it,
  
• Buttons! - Switchgear is not really switches but buttons which felt like that on some cheap toy.
  
• No Regen! - The executive told that there is no regen and neither did I find it. He explained that instead of regen there is a feature where if we even if we touch the brakes, the throttle will be completely cut off thereby saving energy.
  
• Energy saving feature - The above explained feature is the one thing I just didn't like...it is dangerous also I felt. In city we encounter lot of situations where we have to hold the brake a bit and accelerate a bit. but even a small touch of the brake lever, the throttle is DEAD! white taking U-turn, while inching slowly with the traffic, this is tough and sometimes dangerous.
  
• Missing features - Bluetooth, cruise control, hill hold, voice activated controls, geo fencing, tamper alert, widgets, mood themes nothing was available on the test ride vehicle. The test rides were really hurried I felt

Booking and Test ride experience

When I got the email on No10th for scheduling a test ride, The test rides started from November 12th. For a Friday, I unusually had lot of meetings and calls at office. And I had lot of personal appointments over the weekend. So I booked the last slot on Friday at 19:00. Although this would mean that I couldn't take nice photos in daylight, I would give me an opportunity to test the headlights which I was wary about. I had office calls at attend till 18:00 and then another at 20:00. So I took my wife along so that after the test ride, I could attend my call from the car while she drives.

I left home at 18:00 sharp but due to rain and traffic jams, I took more time than usual and reached at 19:10. It was in a big co-working space building with good parking space. I drove in only to be stopped by the parking attendant who said that parking is not allowed for Ola event attendees! he asked me to park in the adjacent supermarket. Unhappy, I took my car out and parked it on the kerb side behind many other parked vehicles. Here Ola executives came and told that I can't park as it is reserved for test ride. I told them that it was public place and they can't block it like that especially when it is for their own event! Anyway I parked it in the next building with a supermarket.

I entered inside and they confirmed the order details and checked if I had test ride slot booked. Since we are planning to buy this for my father, I had entered my father's name. When they asked for my license, They can't accept as there is a mismatch! Even after seeing my father's name in my license they were hesitant. In fact I wanted to take my father along because he will be the end user but he was held up with some other work that day and he asked me to take a final call. Finally after 5 minutes of discussion they agreed.

We were then allotted for a demo in a batch on one of the two scooters and asked to wait till the previous batch finishes theirs. During this time a PR guy came to me seeing the TBHP Tshirt I was wearing. He asked me if I was from the editorial team and If I'll write a review. I told I'm not from the editorial team but I'll be writing a review for sure! He asked me not to write till 15th as there is an Embargo! I was really surprised by this and I said I'll need some time anyway to compile the review. later during the test ride also I was told that I can't take pictures...I was like Seriously! I totally can't understand level of confidentiality when they're giving a test ride to an end customer!! That was when I decided to write this review before 15th!

Overall, the event management could've been a lot better!

The Demo



There were 2 demo scooters-One Jet Gloss Black and a Matte Grey. Since mine was the last batch, we were around 5 people per scooter for a demo. Previous one had like 10 people per scooter! The executive started with the gloss black but we immediately hit a roadblock in the form of a Software glitch. The vehicle dashboard was frozen! even a reset didn't help. They got a new one after that. This was a message that in general, we have to prepare ourselves for such experiences with future vehicles. This is one of the negatives of having software in everything we use including vehicles!

One by one the executive explained all the features of the vehicle.

The Looks



The headlight is the striking features and makes it stand out in the crowd, The border is a AOH DRL and at the centre are two projector LED lamps - one for the low beam and another for high beam. The front indicators is further down on the body. The mono front shock is also another unique feature. It looks different.

From the videos and pictures I felt that the scooter was leaning too much on it's side stand like Ather but in actual it was not as much. But leans more than Activa for example.

The tyres are 110/70-12 in size and the demo vehicles had MRF Zapper tyres. They come with Disc brakes at both Front and the rear

The seat is wide and comfortable and at the rear end has split grabrails. The seat could've been longer I felt. The under seat storage is huge and has a flat bottom. Etergo had designed it for a crate of beer cans and it is exactly in that shape. It is rectangular but it could've been deeper I felt. Two half-face helmets can fit but Ola intelligently have taken helmet with less height. I feel a taller half face helmet might not fit. Full face helmet may not fit at all.





The side stand and rear footrest sits flush with the body. Both open without any thud but i felt the side stand could've been beefier and stronger. But if it does its function its good enough. Both the rear footrests have ridges for good grip. There is no centre stand or saree side step but the executive told that these will be available as an accessory along with an all-round body protection guard.



At the rear centre is the charge flap with S1Pro written on it.it is push lock/unlock type. This cover really felt flimsy. Inside the port is covered with another rubber cap for better Ingress Protection. The charger itself is portable and not a fast charger. For the home charger they just provide a stand for this. Intelligent design but not really safe. The plug for the scooter is Ola specific and not standard.







The tail lamp and indicator are low down on the body in a single housing.

Overall it is a retro-modern looking scooter and I loved it. It always reminds me of the EVA robot from Wall-E movie. Overall it has nice proportions and nice free flowing curves. It design restraint is completely European. Thankfully it was Etergo who designed it in the beginning.



The gloss piano black looked good but is a royal pain to maintain. It is one big Finger-print and swirl-mark magnet. The other matte Grey looked nice.

Moving on to the switch gear or button gear, there are 5 buttons on each side. The left has a light button, cruise control/reverse, left indicator, right indicator, and a big horn button. The right side has mode change, power, volume plus, volume minus and a big play/pause. The buttons are made of rubber and looked cheap.





The light button toggles between light off, low beam and high beam

I was told that the cruise control works after 25kmph but not available in the demo scooters. When the scooter is idle, the same button works for reverse. We have to remove side stand, hold brake and then press this button to activate the reverse mode. then turning the throttle forward(in the opposite direction) will move the vehicle in reverse. He told that the max speed is limited to 2kmph. When R mode is activated, the vehicle doesn't move forward at all. it would've been better in reverse mode is if the throttle is twisted normally it should have moved in the forward direction too at 2kmph. because while taking a vehicle out of tight spots you have to do forward and reverse movements a couple of times. One another thing...Having used Reverse or Park assist mode in Ather, this turning throttle in opposite direction didn't feel intuitive as the mind is not trained for this. May be it is a getting-used-to thing and non-Ather users may train their mind faster.

Then the indicator buttons. one thing is if you've turned on the right indicator, you've to press the same button again to turn off. if you press the left one, it will turn on left indicator. There is no Auto-off option. I personally feel that the normal indicator switch that we find on all scooters is still the best

Then the horn button. it is sufficiently loud

Coming to the right side handlebar, the power button turns on the scooter only if the side stand is removed and one brake is depressed. The scooter starts in Normal mode.




Warning messages

The mode change button changes modes and is then shown on the display and also a audio feedback is provided.

Then there are volume plus, volume minus, and play pause buttons to control music when connected via Bluetooth. This was unavailable.

I got to sit on the scooter after this and It's sufficiently low seating. My 5' wife loved this height and it was comfortable for me too 5'7" My father who's 5'11" may find it too low but nothing that is a deal breaker.

Just behind the front body panel on the inside is a luggage hook at the centre. This is fixed hook and should've been a retractable type. no premium feel to it whatsoever. on the left side is a cubby hole to keep small items. on the right side also there is a cubby hole but it also has a USB port here so that we can charge our phones on the move. On the demo scooter there was a big hole here and on the test ride scooter there was a USB port with a flimsy cover which came off when i tried to open it.


Place for an USB port

One highlight here is that there is not key slot or a start stop button. When the registered mobile comes close, it can be started. However I do not know what happens in case our phone runs out of charge. The mirrors are simple and offer decent rear view



Dashboard
The touchscreen dash board is a huge 7 inch screen. The huge border makes it appear even bigger when the vehicle is off. There are 5 sections split into 3 screens. The Home screen, The Navigation and Music screen and finally the Settings and Info screen.

Home screen



It has a big circle at the centre which shows the mode when stationery (P R N S H) and shows the speed when moving. On the right side, it has another smaller circle which is the trip meter with the odo reading shown as text below it which says "xxx km all time". On the left side is the bluetooth device details. At the bottom of the screen there is a status bar. At the centre of the status bar is a button to open the under seat storage space. There should've been a physical button to open this I felt because if the screen freezes for whatever reason, it will become impossible to open the boot.

On the left side of this button there are telltales like battery status and remaining range and light on and high beam. on the right side again there are tell tales for side stand, bluetooth, signal strength and a digital clock
The boot open button on the status bar is only on the homescreen while the other tell tales are present on all the 3 screens.

Navigation and Music screen



The left half of the screen is for navigation with a search bar and a list of recent locations. Tapping on the search bar gives a keypad and then it moves onto the map view where it shows the directions and from there we can start the navigation



I couldn't see the music section as phone pairing was not possible yet.

Setting and Info screen



The left half is the setting screen with a list of recent settings. Here we can adjust the display brightness at the top. then there are Sound settings, Display settings, Bluetooth setting and All settings. Tapping on any of these takes us into a next screen with Bluetooth, Display, Sounds, About and System update tabs on the left and the settings on the right
Bluetooth had only option to switch on and off for now
Display had light and dark theme buttons and brightness adjustment
Sound had only volume control bar for the music playback
About showed vehicle name, model, odo, purchase date, software version, bluetooth address and wifi Address
System update shown OTA details if any.







Overall the dashboard was quite fluid and smooth and the pick zoom was also smooth and fast like any mid range smart phone. Lots of features still have to be enabled but i guess poor software engineers at Ola would be burning the midnight oil

Test Ride

After this demo, WE finally got our hands on the test ride vehicle. As has been from the past 1 week, it was raining albeit not heavily. I got a red S1pro and the executive gave some final instructions.



He told to ride in normal mode only as the pickup is too much to handle! When I told I have an EV scooter already he told "Ok sir, try it if you are used to it but start in max sports mode and not hyper mode". I agreed. He once again told about the Energy saving feature and be focused on it. Immediately this was difficult for me and even a small tap on the brake kills the throttle. Starting slowly was a challenge.

Soon after starting I switched to Hyper mode and the pull is really strong I couldn't really go to higher speeds due to traffic but my focus was not really on the speed. The pull is strong and addictive.
Later I had to take a U turn and had to slow down. The brakes kill the throttle and the scooter kind of cruises for sometime before I could feel the brake bite. It can get scary in emergency braking situations.

Again, taking a slow U turn with brake and throttle input was really difficult. also now that the vehicle was in Hyper mode, the acceleration was sudden and kind of jerky. It was more of a hub motor like feel and didn't feel like a belt driven vehicle. it doesn't feel like this in Sports or normal. Starting from from zero is better in Sports or Normal mode IMO.

I then rode on some potholes and I really liked the rear suspension in how it handles rough roads. It's on the firmer side but is good for Bengaluru roads. However the front suspension being a monoshock was strictly average.
While riding, I observes that the footboard is a little too high in the sense that the distance between the seat and floorboard is less. This means that it is not good for long distances. But yeah it is a city vehicle. The seat should've been a tad higher.

Then I came to a signal where the road is at a higher gradient. The energy saving came to haunt me again. There is no hill-hold as yet and every time I tap the brake ever so slightly, The scooter goes dead! And the acceleration after i release the brake has some lag. Due to this it was dangerously going back close to an autorickshaw behind me who honked some time when this was happening. Hill hold might solve this to a certain extent, but I still hope This feature can be switched off somehow! I returned back and it was 20:00 by this time. I jumped on to my office call while my wife took the scooter for a test ride. after around 10 mins she returned back and soon, we were on our way home.

After my call was over, I asked my wife how it was and this energy saving feature is what she said was different. She told she liked the Ather more than this. Another thing she mentioned was that a normal push to cancel indicator switch is better. She didn't try hyper mode.

My impressions were also similar. It didn't wow us but is is not bad. The USP for S1 would be the range. I would definitely pick this over the Chetak but Ather's ride quality is definitely better. If range is not a concern, Ather is still better. That said, the primary user is my father and for his usage, this is more than enough. For any person who wants to shift to EV, this is a good option to consider. I feel this is an introductory pricing from Ola and before the price hike, people can buy this. There are risks like the software is being incomplete but it is something that can be ironed out before deliveries. Service is unknown but at this scale and their purse, I think Ola will manage this.

Both my wife and I agreed that there is no major deal breakers especially considering the primary user and his usage patterns. Came back home and told this to my father and he told whatever I decide, he's ok with it. If he doesn't feel the pinch of petrol filling, he'll be happy.

At around 23:00 in the night I also got a payment link for the balance amount payment. we all slept over it and today morning I made the balance payment. The delivery timeline given to me is before Nov 30. I'm ok even if it gets extended (which I'm sure will happen). It will be a porcelain white. The insurance was the only thing above the scooter cost of ₹99,000. Insurance is expensive by around ₹2000 but there was no option given to remove it which is really bad from Ola.

Anyway, The EV market is sure heating up and pretty soon there will be no ICE two wheeler in our home. We had 2 Vespas at a time and soon we will have two EVs.

[muni]

Originally Posted by shortbread

@ muni

Thanks for the review.

Does the seat look like it can accommodate two riders, with the rear rider sitting sideways as commonly seen in India?

This I think is a big factor for scooters in the Indian market.

It can accommodate reasonably well with a lady sitting sideways. The width is wider ( need to corroborate with measurement probably) than most scooters and the length of the seat is probably on par with the competition if not longer.

Then I came to a signal where the road is at a higher gradient. The energy saving came to haunt me again. There is no hill-hold as yet and every time I tap the brake ever so slightly, The scooter goes dead! And the acceleration after i release the brake has some lag. Due to this it was dangerously going back close to an autorickshaw behind me who honked some time when this was happening. Hill hold might solve this to a certain extent, but I still hope This feature can be switched off somehow!

Thanks hemanth for the exhaustive and elaborate review. You covered most of the things.

The vehicle not accelerating when the brake lever is engaged is difficult to get used to and a pain. Not sure if Ather has a similar feature and I feel this is something that is going to be an irritant for most people. Hope there is a workaround or an option to switch off