[rarkit]

Originally Posted by car love

I met a very senior automotive industry titan recently. He too felt that this whole electric two wheeler thing sounds very fishy. Something like a pump and dump scheme. Only time will tell what is going on.
If he was not sure, then sure as hell I am not buying anything electric anytime soon.

If he is a so called titan of the industry then he is probably old school. It can be as much wishful thinking on his part as insight into the market since electric two wheels can completely upend the existing market. Most of the traditional companies have paid little attention to electric two wheelers. And it is not uncommon at all for even giant corporations to get completely destroyed when a new technology comes and they refuse to accept reality and change course. Kodak is the most famous example but history is littered with such examples.

[car love]

Originally Posted by rarkit

If he is a so called titan of the industry then he is probably old school. It can be as much wishful thinking on his part as insight into the market since electric two wheels can completely upend the existing market. Most of the traditional companies have paid little attention to electric two wheelers. And it is not uncommon at all for even giant corporations to get completely destroyed when a new technology comes and they refuse to accept reality and change course. Kodak is the most famous example but history is littered with such examples.

Sure everyone has their own take on things and of course the Kodak example is often cited. That was a different time and a different age. You have just assumed that the Gent I met is is old school. That is opinionated to say the least!!
Do you really think giants like Bajaj are just sleeping and waiting to be taken over by some upstart? They are just biding their time. When the time comes and if they do believe that electric is the future, they will just blow everyone else aside. The current crop of electric players are burning cash at a terrible rate. They either cash out soon or crash out. Its inevitable.
In industry generally the last entrants often end up dominating.

[soumobakshi]

As an early adopter who paid in full for the Ola S1 on 12th of November, it was a long wait.

I had booked an Ola S1 in Black color and then I received an email somewhere in December, stating that the vehicle that will be shipped to me will S1 Pro and the additional features of Pro will be disabled and can be enabled anytime, if i so decide, by paying an upgrade fee of 30k.

Started getting calls from Ola regarding FAME OTP and then Vahaan OTP in order to get the vehicle registration done from 6th of Jan. The complete On Line Process was a welcome change and other than meeting a person to provide signatures for the RTO process everything was online and a big for that.

On the 10th of Jan i received the much welcome SMS from Vahaan, confirming the Registration Number of my first eV and i immediately headed to Digilocker to search and download the RC.

The very next day around 3PM,i received a call stating that the vehicle will be delivered today and what would be my preferred timings for the same. Communicated the same and the countdown begins

Well this is the first vehicle that i am buying without a PDI and it was already giving me jitters !

It was around 6PM on Tuesday the 11th of Jan when i received a call stating that the delivery vehicle has reached my location.

Like a kid getting his first bicycle, i rushed and met the Ola Delivery Team.

They had already started the process of removing the restraints in order to ensure a safe delivery and it was in a few minutes that the scooter was rolled down into my apartment parking where the unboxing would take place.

The entire delivery process was flawless and the person in charge explained each and every details. The vehicle was delivered with more than 100kms range in Normal Mode, which was a sigh of relief, since i didn't have the charging point installed.


Next day i did some research and spoke to few folks who owns an eV and got the charging point installed.

Once the installation was done it was time to get the vehicle charged at home using the Charger provided. I must say that the quality of the Charger( Made in Odisha, as per the invoice) is of very good build quality and so is the bag in which it came. For that matter the cover which came complimentary with the vehicle was of great quality too.
It took about 2.5 hours to fully charge the battery and it shows the range in various riding modes as it charges too.


Everything was going great and that's when it happened. Suddenly the Touchscreen system won't power up. Called up the OLA customer care and i selected RSA for getting support, but then since my vehicle was parked in my apartment, they decided to route my call to Service team. The customer care team was not given enough training and it showed up in their Communication. I didn't have faith that anyone would be attending to my reported issue at the end of the conversation. Yes, they were trained that well!

So me being me, i went a poked on Twitter about the recent predicament. Within 30 mins i received a call from Mr. Arun Kumar who introduced himself as Service In Charge from Ola electric for Karnataka Region. He was very professional and heard me and checked my availability so that he can send someone to get this fixed within next 2 hours to my preferred timing as well. Agreed upon a time and he requested if i would pull down the Twitter post, i Obliged!

The service technician reached at the stipulated time and he assured me that it was a case of a loose contact and he will have it up and running in a short time. And as he had informed, it was indeed a connector which was loose and once it was secured with a zip tie( as an additional protection) vehicle was back on line.

So far so good with the overall delivery experience and the service support was timely too. And yes the Hyper mode is active in my scooter for now and i must say it's very exhilarating It could turn out to be a very smart move from Ola to convert the S1 customer to S1 Pro by letting them experience the additional features for the first few days. I strongly believe that it will be disabled by OTA update very shortly.

I just hope that they spend sometime in training their customer care team who acts as the face.of Ola for their customers.

Feel free to shoot your questions and i will be glad to respond.

[sougatadas]

Originally Posted by soumobakshi

Like a kid getting his first bicycle, i rushed and met the Ola Delivery Team.

Many congratulations!!! The thrill is always same at 14 or 40
It would be great if you can share some unboxing experience and observation.

[Kalash_6324]

Originally Posted by soumobakshi

Like a kid getting his first bicycle, i rushed and met the Ola Delivery Team.

Congratulations!

1. Can you please share your mode of payment/finance?
If you've financed your purchase, what were the options, if any, you were given?
What was the interest rate & tenure?

2. Since it looks like an S1 Pro that has been delivered to you, do you think the range will decrease with the OTA update where they disable Pro features?

3. Are there any differences in build quality between the TD units and delivery units?

4. Please share the actual range you receive on one full charge.

Anyway, congratulations once again, best wishes for a pleasant ownership experience and happy riding!
Stay safe.

[MaheshY1]

I'll repeat what I said in my first post about Ola when they announced the price and specs:

Bhavish wasn't kidding when he said: "We don't want to be the Tesla of India. We want to be the Ola of India." I can't even imagine what kind of damage he's going to inflict on the 4-wheelers.

According to my math with even a conservative 140km range expectations from the Pro, this scooter is breaking even the delta over an Activa in under 40,000km. The auto sector can't digest it. They can't live with that figure.

With my hypermiling skills, I'm sure I can get more than 160km from the Pro considering that I still get more than what Chevrolet claimed from my Beat with 1lakh km on the odo. So, for someone like me, the km-to-breakeven will be even lower as my Navi gives me around 45kmpl with light throttle application.

On The Lab Test Range
As far as the actual range goes, it's ARAI tested. So, blame it on ARAI to upgrade their testing cycles and make it a fair playing field. It's not like the Nexon can give 300km+ when using it with full blast heater in city traffic during winters. Our petrol cars aren't delivering their promised ARAI figures in city traffic either. But the EVs stand a better chance at doing well in city driving than on the highways.

I think the automakers are feeling the heat and it's showing in the attacks.

[Venkatesh]

Bhavish Aggarwal announced next Payment window date :

Final payment window opens on Jan 21, 6pm in Ola App for all customers who've paid 20k. We'll dispatch across Jan & Feb.

Link

[Gansan]

Originally Posted by MaheshY1

According to my math with even a conservative 140km range expectations from the Pro, this scooter is breaking even the delta over an Activa in under 40,000km.

I ride a 21 year old Splendor for daily commute. I do 52 km every day, 23 days a month. About 14.5k km a year, which consumes about 221 litres of Speed petrol @ Rs 104.xx per litre. Total fuel expense around Rs 23.5k a year.The bike returns about 65 kmpl.

Even for me, the price difference betwen Ola S1 Pro and a new Splendor will be recovered in about 3 years. Another couple of years, and the money saved will buy a new battery pack if necessary. For those opting for gearless scooters (~ 40 kmpl), the recovery period will be even less.

I am waiting for the teething problems to be over. Then I will definitely buy it, or something similar to it.

[pogo0120]

Originally Posted by Gansan

I ride a 21 year old Splendor for daily commute. I do 52 km every day, 23 days a month. About 14.5k km a year, which consumes about 221 litres of Speed petrol @ Rs 104.xx per litre. Total fuel expense around Rs 23.5k a year.The bike returns about 65 kmpl.

Even for me, the price difference betwen Ola S1 Pro and a new Splendor will be recovered in about 3 years. Another couple of years, and the money saved will buy a new battery pack if necessary. For those opting for gearless scooters (~ 40 kmpl), the recovery period will be even less.

Small error in your equation: On the fun side...

I think you should not compare bike with scooter

65KMs and 104 per liter will easily make 2Rs per kilometre including 3 times oil change, air filter once, one year carburetor and most importantly, you will never get one litre fuel. Atleast 5Rs stealing at pump.

For three years, battery, clutch, spark plug, accelerator cable, (rainy seasons, hot season x 3 times etc)

Other maintenance, I have kept it common for both. Brake shoes, Puncture, tyres, lights, brake cable, seat cover etc etc..

If you multiply by 2Rs per Km for 14500Kms per year, you will end up 29K.

Ola, I am expecting 30 Kms per Unit, (lower side)
Electricity, 8 Rs per unit or 10Rs per unit, means 10 Rs for 30Kms or 33 Paise for 1Km.
Savings per Km is 1.66Rs, which means around 24,000 Per year.
Three year savings should be more than 70,000.

Even if you drive 30Kms a day, the difference is 1.66X30Kms, which is 50 Rs per day. For my activa, which gives 30KMPL, it is one litre of petrol vs 1 Unit of charge everyday.. 104Rs vs 10 Rs everyday. Bangalore, stop and go traffic, even more savings!

For 365 days, you would have saved over 18,000 and for three years over 50,000.

No matter how you calculate electric vehicles are value for money. Besides, you did not calculate asset value of vehicle.

If you take that into equation

Price of activa + operation cost for 15,000Kms vs Cost of OLA scooter + operation cost for 15,000Kms

80K +2.5Rs per Km X15,000 = 37500 vs 1,05,000+ 5000Rs electricity cost..

End of first year, you are better of with OLA. TCO, total cost of ownership for OLA is 110K vs 117,500 for activa. And the best part is, total end to irritating visit to showrooms or services centres, where you know that you are getting ripped off, yet there is was no way around. I remember visiting Bajaj showroom and service centre, Mysore Road Bangalore at the time of Vijayadashami, Ayudapooja. Vehicles which they got for periodic oil change, NO OIL CHANGE WAS DONE. Just wash and returned to owner, but amount of fully collected. I got to know about this, because, reception girls sitting in the front desk were discussing about this. The service centre had received around 4 times to 5 times vehicles more vehicles, employees were going on vacation.. vehicles were just washed and given back. Even washing was overloaded. When I took the discover 100cc back, we opened the cap and checked for oil and I told them that oil is not changed. They argued that oil color will change immediately once new oil is put and even if the engine is started for one minute. Then I argued back that, I accept their logic, I will open the engine oil myself and then I should see quantity of oil should be exactly one litre and not less. Even if it is less by 100ml, I will call police. That guy got scared and said, he will take inside and check again and then he changed oil and gave back. Sorry for typing long stories, but my experiences are very very bad with service people. Always, get ripped off.

[Akshay6988]

Originally Posted by Gansan

I am waiting for the teething problems to be over. Then I will definitely buy it, or something similar to it.

Even my city commute is high - daily 27 kms to and fro for my mother's office. I ride a 9 year old Honda Dio and it gives me merely 40-45 kmpl with petrol retailing at 110 ₹ a liter. The Ola S1 Pro makes the perfect candidate for my next EV scooter and I'm also waiting for the initial niggles to sort out. The biggest concern I've is the lack of side step ( for the ladies and elderlies ). I get that they wanted a clean design but the foldable side step doesn't look any bad at all on these ICE scooters. Women prefer scooters over bikes due to the lower seat height and ease to get on and off of the scooter. But the lack of side step is going to be a major problem for many people (including me) when deciding on this scooter. @Designers at Ola - if you're reading this, please consider a side step as a must have accessory and launch it.

[fuzzydealhunter]

Originally Posted by Akshay6988

Even my city commute is high - daily 27 kms to and fro for my mother's office. I ride a 9 year old Honda Dio and it gives me merely 40-45 kmpl with petrol retailing at 110 ₹ a liter. The Ola S1 Pro makes the perfect candidate for my next EV scooter and I'm also waiting for the initial niggles to sort out. The biggest concern I've is the lack of side step ( for the ladies and elderlies ). I get that they wanted a clean design but the foldable side step doesn't look any bad at all on these ICE scooters. Women prefer scooters over bikes due to the lower seat height and ease to get on and off of the scooter. But the lack of side step is going to be a major problem for many people (including me) when deciding on this scooter. @Designers at Ola - if you're reading this, please consider a side step as a must have accessory and launch it.

Please do not worry about the side step. We have been told time and again by Ola staff that it's one of the accessories thats in the pipeline.

[sureshkumar]

I had booked one by paying Rs 499. Now I am waiting for the feedback before making a decision.

[Bsimhan]

Originally Posted by soumobakshi

As an early adopter who paid in full for the Ola S1 on 12th of November, it was a long wait.

I had booked an Ola S1 in Black color and then I received an email somewhere in December, stating that the vehicle that will be shipped to me will S1 Pro and the additional features of Pro will be disabled and can be enabled anytime, if i so decide, by paying an upgrade fee of 30k.

First off Congrats on receiving the S1. I got an email this morning that Ola had pushed the S1 deliveries to 2022 end and if I was interested I could purchase the Pro else they would intimate me when they scheduled this for production late this year. This looks like forcing a person to buy the Pro when the booking was accepted for a S1 and the delivery at the time of booking was promised between Jan1st to Jan 31st. I don't feel happy about this and it appears that while Ola seems to be making an exception to some by providing a defeatured S1 Pro, for others, Ola is saying that too bad you need to buy the Pro or else wait. I am a senior and I don't need speed. A steady ride is what my priority would be. My advance is still lying with Ola and I wonder if they will pay this back. Has anyone else received this mail? Please let me know. Regards, Balaji

[shashank.nk]

I made a booking on 26th Dec for the S1 pro. However, the app doesn't display any timeline for delivery. Anyway to check this ? I understand the payment window is opening on 21st Jan, but this is perhaps for those that booked earlier.

[sri_tesla]

Originally Posted by Bsimhan

I don't feel happy about this and it appears that while Ola seems to be making an exception to some by providing a defeatured S1 Pro, for others, Ola is saying that too bad you need to buy the Pro or else wait. I am a senior and I don't need speed. A steady ride is what my priority would be. My advance is still lying with Ola and I wonder if they will pay this back. Has anyone else received this mail? Please let me know. Regards, Balaji

Yes, they are delaying the S1 production and asking all those who booked S1 to upgrade to S1 Pro. Only those who are from the Dec delivery window get locked S1 pro as they already received full payment from that batch. All others who paid Rs 20,499 will need to upgrade to S1 pro if they want delivery anytime soon. Those, who only want S1 need to wait till late 2022. I am not sure if they will produce S1 even at that time. Regarding exceptions to some customers, it's not true for Jan and Feb delivery window customers. No one got this offer and they will not get it unless Ola changes its stance in the next week. There is some unverified information floating in a few telegram groups but that is not accurate. Ola customer care does not have proper information about such high-level decisions. Only the Dec batch (around 4000) got locked S1 pro.

Also, you can cancel your order anytime till the vehicle is dispatched. Since your payment is not yet open, you can cancel it from the Ola app or website. I can see the cancel option for my order on both. The refund may get delayed in some cases but everyone is getting their money back fully.

Originally Posted by shashank.nk

I made a booking on 26th Dec for the S1 pro. However, the app doesn't display any timeline for delivery. Anyway to check this ? I understand the payment window is opening on 21st Jan, but this is perhaps for those that booked earlier.

Yes, your booking much later than those whose payment window opening on 21st Jan. Ola is saying for those who booked later (currently paid only Rs 499 till now), will get the purchase option (Rs 20,000) soon. I think Ola wants to complete the deliveries of early batches (Dec, Jan, Feb batches) before opening the purchase options for others. Good thing is you will get a much refined product with less quality issues and some of the software features as well by the time you get the delivery.