[kiran_aithal]

Need to replace my wife's 15 yr old Activa... as of now, she is not inclined to move to EV.... May be OLA changes her mind.... made the booking just in case.

Like the 'Door delivery' step. Hope we will get to test drive at home too...

[sri_tesla]

Originally Posted by irdevanand

Googled and found that it is indeed Etergo Appscooter. Ola has acquired this company. I thought it is home grown.

Ola's acquisition of the Etergo, and Appscooter being the first model to be sold in India is already public and there are other related threads on the Team-Bhp with more information.

Ola made some changes to the Appscooter model from Etergo, like adding charging port at the back, making batteries non-removable, turning lights, etc... The Etergo and Appscooter provide a way for Ola to quickly enter the market, instead of spending time designing the vehicle from the ground up. They already announced that there will be multiple new models in the future. They also roped in many high-level executives including former Jaguar designer.

[Sridhar C E]

I've booked one too! (At least I can afford an electric scooter as of now!)

Looking at long term sustainability, moving away from fossil fuels is the only way. The Highway and city infrastructure should be made electric vehicle- charging friendly.

Looking forward to saying good bye to my 16 year old faithful Honda Activa!!

[DDIS_RE650]

As per their mega launch plan and high sales target, Ola may be the next Activa which had disrupted the two-wheeler market. Almost every other household has or had one Activa.

If Ola manages to get 50-60% of Honda reliability then a super-hit product is on the way. They should not target Ather but need to compete with Activa/Mastero/Ntorq etc.


Mod Note: Dear BHPian,

There are several spelling & grammatical errors in your posts. This negatively affects the forum experience for other readers.

Kindly ensure that you proof-read your posts prior to submission. Also, it would be a good idea to use a spell-checker.

[mtnrajdeep]

Originally Posted by sri_tesla

Ola made some changes to the Appscooter model from Etergo, like adding charging port at the back, making batteries non-removable, turning lights, etc...

Can you please share the source which mentions that battery is non-removeable? I was thinking that the main selling point is to have a removeable battery which you can carry and charged at your home, which will be a huge advantage in apartments.

[JithinR]

Originally Posted by sri_tesla

Ola made some changes to the Appscooter model from Etergo, like adding charging port at the back, making batteries non-removable, turning lights, etc...

Originally Posted by mtnrajdeep

Can you please share the source which mentions that battery is non-removeable? I was thinking that the main selling point is to have a removeable battery which you can carry and charged at your home, which will be a huge advantage in apartments.

Same here. The only reason I booked the damn thing is because I saw the removable battery configuration in Etergo ones.

If the battery is non removable then I might as well cancel the booking (there are very few high speed charging stations near where I live).

I have a doubt though, the booking page has a question/answer section that mentions:

The Ola scooter can be charged in two ways:
1) Home Charging, using your home-charger in any 5A socket, at your home, workplace or anywhere else.
2) Ola Electric Charging Network which is going live in over 100 cities and will eventually cover 400+ cities. For details on Ola Charger Network,
check out: https://olaelectric.com/hyperchargernetwork

Are Home Charging points usually 5A ones? I thought people would generally use 15A sockets for charging.

This is why I assumed they were talking about removable batteries that we could take home and charge.

[Rajeevraj]

A nice way for some crowdfunding also? With this low booking amount, I assume booking numbers will be huge. Say 100,000 bookings are done, that is 5 crore. Even if everyone cancels after 2-3 months, Ola would have made a nice pot via interest gained through investing this 5Cr

[KPR]

I've contributed my ₹499/- towards their crowdfunding or booking whatever they wish to name it. I'm seriously considering this electric scooter over Ather. Ather's pricing is out of my budget for a scooter. Hope Ola keeps price sub 1 lakh.

[aargee]

Ather & Ola...

Both founders are IIT pass out & landed up making e-scooters...

One started from nothing, built it up all through investments & took years to launch a lifestyle product.

The other started with millions, built it up through his own money & took few months to launch a mass-market product

Only time will tell who will stay long to play!!

[silverstreakcbe]

Booked one for my wife. Really interesting to see how the pricing would turn up.

[LeoRBK]

Ola seems to have prepared the recipe with all the right ingredients for a tasty recipe.
I appreciate the fact that they invested in production at scale from the beginning. This should allow them to price the product close to fossil fuel alternatives if they so wish.
Investment in public charger network infrastructure is essential in India. I do hope they keep these hyperchargers open for all and not just Ola scooters.

[k_ajay]

I think Ola did a masterstroke by fixing the booking amount at ₹ 499. Just due to this price, many individuals and homes might be just booking at least 1. A good majority of these might be from those who strongly consider moving to an electric scooter, but not willing to pay the high prices of Ather's products.

Ola benefits by collecting the booking amounts, of course, but more importantly, they get the impressions of so many prospective interests, which could be more critical input for them. They'd be aware that not all impressions of interest will turn into a sale, but through persistent targeted marketing, they might surely try to increase their conversion rate. Just knowing an individual's interest in an ev scooter should be a sufficient starting point for them (rather than wait for footfalls in near empty showrooms). Most of us know how massive Ola's marketing can be and their success with the cabs.

Smart strategy, in my limited opinion.

And I agree with the other member who mentioned prices of their basic model in the ball park of ₹ 75k. OLA would be really smart and do very well if they price their base model around ₹ 80k and their 2nd model between ₹ 80k - ₹1 lakh. This will be a huge draw for most scooter buyers, currently pained by escalating fossil fuel prices. Let's see how smart OLA is, when prices are announced.

[Avinash_R]

Some clear pictures of the scooter especially the TFT screen

Source: ACI

[aashishnb]

I think, they are more interested in data points than the money.

In terms of interest on the amount collected, given the size of their balance sheet, funding, etc. it would be rounding errors for them.

It gives them very useful data points - which cities can they expect to have maximum demand, profile of customer, etc. In some sense, given the nature of their business - a chart on the number of pre-bookings would look good on their pitch when they go for their next round of fundraising.

[sreeharipv]

Booked as soon as it was possible just the way I did for my Ather 450X in Jan 2020. I had bought a RE Meteor earlier this year as I was tired of waiting for the Ather in Kerala. After I got delivery of Ather, my Meteor is mostly sitting in the garage unless Ather isn't available. Wouldn't have bought the Meteor of if Ather delivered in November 2020 as promised. Hope Hondas and Bajajs learn their lesson from Ola Electric.