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Old 24th January 2022, 17:52   #451
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Re: Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review

Hi everyone,

I received my first Ola S1 Pro yesterday. Does anyone know how to claim the Delhi Government State EV subsidy? Is there an online process or do we have to visit the RTO?

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Old 25th January 2022, 21:23   #452
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Re: Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review

Quote:
Originally Posted by pogo0120 View Post
Sadly, these are the really bad things about OLA. A company that claims empowerment of women, women-only factory totally ignores all ladies wearing saree as the second rider for their scooter. What good a scooter is, if you cannot take your mother or grandmother or someone wearing a saree for a ride to hospital or temple or someplace? Without foot rest, it is dangerous to ride a scooter Period.
Well said. While there are so many discussions that are centered around the well deserved criticism of Ola's business strategy and the corresponding rebuttals, I find it amazing that the company has missed out on such a crucial design element and yet, believe that they will take over the 2 wheeler market.

Anyways, since so many members have brought up the competition, I am sharing an article that I read recently. Bajaj seems to enjoy stirring the pot when it comes to Ola. The full article is here.

Quote:
Rakesh Sharma, Executive Director, Bajaj Auto said, “We are not looking at importing designs and slapping together a power-train to speedily enter the market with a half complete product. We would prefer that our products are designed to address specific use cases.”
Quote:
“Despite the frenzy surrounding the whole subject (of electric vehicles), we are clear that we will choose certainty over speed to ensure we do not damage a nascent category (of EVs) and build a robust and dependable brand,” Sharma added.
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Old 26th January 2022, 11:43   #453
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Re: Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review

Woah woah woah.

Things are getting spicy.

Name:  Bhavish.jpg
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Imagine Hormazd Sorabjee being quote tweeted by a blue-tick CEO with Burnol gif. For context, Hormazd is reacting to Bhavish's tweet about a future Ola Car.

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Bhavish's game plan is simple. He wants to create a cult. Cults are good for great brand recall and drowning out the noise. He is positioning himself as the contrarian messiah and Indiranagar ka Elon Musk. Which is why Ola is also re-tweeting every delivery which is taking place.

Its still early to see how this will play out but it is certainly going to get more contentious.

Last edited by avishar : 26th January 2022 at 11:48.
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Old 26th January 2022, 21:04   #454
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Re: Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review

Quote:
Originally Posted by soumobakshi View Post
Oops no, the total Amount; all included I paid is ₹1,09,689/- (Scooter Reservation: ₹499 on 16th July'21 + Advance Amount ₹20000 on 15th Sep'21 + ₹89190 on 12th Nov'21)

In case I want the Performance Pack, i will have to Pay 30k, if I decide to get.
I'd been trying to understand this billing since a week. From my cancelled booking, I could gather that you've paid ₹9,690 towards handling charges, registration charges & insurance and the remaining ₹99,999 towards the scooter & charger. However, the invoice for scooter and charger adds upto ₹1,12,999. So you've paid ₹13k less than the invoice. Either this difference of ₹13k has to be mentioned in the invoice as discount or a credit note has to be issued later. Otherwise I can't understand how they are reconciling their invoice register and collection register.

As long as you don't upgrade to S1pro, you've got a benefit of ₹13k. Only when you upgrade to S1Pro by paying ₹30k for a performance upgrade (which is actually worth ₹17k), will this ₹13k be recovered from you.

Whatever is the case, currently S1pro customer is made to look like an idiot because he's paying ₹1,12,999 for the same thing for which you've paid ₹99,999.
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Old 27th January 2022, 11:16   #455
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Re: Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review

Here is a review by an owner who appears to be a satisfied customer of a S1 Pro with his initial drives and ownership. He says it costs Rs 24/- to run 130 kms in the single charge. But this figure doesn't take account of wear and tear of the tyres, other components and depreciation. Thoughtfully always, the running cost is arrived at bereft of such calculations that are much more for ICE scooters.

He goes gaga over super efficient brakes, the seven inch touchscreen panel, blue tooth, Wi-Fi, keyless operation and the water invincible (till now) plus his ownership experience.

He however is still to get used to the silent machine on two wheels.

The news:-

https://www.onmanorama.com/news/busi...la-review.html
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Old 27th January 2022, 11:58   #456
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Re: Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review

Behind the scenes of Ola Electric Scooter launch

Quote:
“Bhavish hired people, doubled their salaries and gave them an unrealistic timeline,” says this executive. “People told him it wasn’t possible, but he wouldn’t listen. He fired them instead. So the rest of them lied. That’s what has led to the launch debacle.”
Quote:
As the 8 September deadline loomed and it became clearer that an announcement was almost impossible because the website wasn’t ready, Ola Electric brought an engineer from Ola Financial Services to fix the website overnight, which didn’t happen. “So the next day, he was fired because Bhavish had to publish an apology,” recalls this executive.
Quote:
Still, the bigger problem isn’t the past but the future. A scooter will be delivered, just like it was launched, despite multiple issues. “But most likely, it will be a shitty product which can break down anytime,” he says.
Source
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Old 27th January 2022, 13:15   #457
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Re: Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review

Hormazd Sorabjee has a point. This is the data available on the Vahan website as on January 27, 2022 (https://vahan.parivahan.gov.in/vahan4dashboard/)

I have just picked Ather and Okinawa for comparison purposes.

The first set of data is for the cumulative registrations till date (i.e. Till Today).
Total Registration Data For All State (Till Today) as on January 27, 2022:
ATHER ENERGY PVT LTD: 22,688
OKINAWA AUTOTECH PVT LTD: 59,718
OLA ELECTRIC TECHNOLOGIES PVT LTD:1,193

The second set of data is for the yearly registrations till date (i.e. from January 1, 2022 onwards).
Total Registration Data For All State (2022) as on January 27, 2022:
ATHER ENERGY PVT LTD: 1,417
OKINAWA AUTOTECH PVT LTD: 4,622
OLA ELECTRIC TECHNOLOGIES PVT LTD:953

So, which one of these could be true? Choose the right answer:
(a) State and central governments and the RTOs are too incompetent to register Ola scooters in time (only Ola scooters, not other brands)
(b) #petrolmedia is working overtime against Ola in collusion with RTOs to delay registrations
(c) The RTOs are too mesmerized by the sheer wit and brilliance of Bhavish's tweets to do anything else.
(d) Mr. Bhavish Aggarwal is OBVIOUSLY LYING about the production numbers.

The Ola Electric 2-wheeler business is crawling on its belly as of date, not even on the all-fours. I wish him all the luck, but won't it be better to make at least one of your many businesses profitable before venturing into a new one?
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Old 27th January 2022, 15:50   #458
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Re: Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review

^^ Since we are still in January, both the sets of data (for the month and cumulative for the year) should be identical. Why are they different?

And Okinawa seems to be running away with the cup. Their sales numbers are what Ola is dreaming about.

Last edited by Chetan_Rao : 27th January 2022 at 19:07. Reason: typo: numbers
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Old 27th January 2022, 16:10   #459
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Re: Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review

Quote:
Originally Posted by binoybnair View Post
ATHER ENERGY PVT LTD: 22,688
OKINAWA AUTOTECH PVT LTD: 59,718
OLA ELECTRIC TECHNOLOGIES PVT LTD:1,193

The second set of data is for the yearly registrations till date (i.e. from January 1, 2022 onwards).
Total Registration Data For All State (2022) as on January 27, 2022:
ATHER ENERGY PVT LTD: 1,417
OKINAWA AUTOTECH PVT LTD: 4,622
OLA ELECTRIC TECHNOLOGIES PVT LTD:953
It's already explained here:
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/motor...ml#post5239962 (Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review)

Cumulative is the number sold since the company started selling scooters, in case of Ather it is 2018. Since OLA started selling from Dec 15th 2021, their cumulative and 2022 sales are almost close.

Yeah, the old media needs some Burnol, Autocar India has been writing against EVs until 2 years ago, let's not divert from the discussion here.
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Old 27th January 2022, 16:23   #460
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Re: Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review

^^ Does that mean Ather is selling < 500 scooters a month for the past five years? Then how are they staying afloat?
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Old 27th January 2022, 17:56   #461
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Re: Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gansan View Post
^^ Does that mean Ather is selling < 500 scooters a month for the past five years? Then how are they staying afloat?
For the first 2 years, Ather was selling around 250 scooters per month. They started deliveries in Jan 2019. In 2021, their sales increased due to rapid increase in petrol prices, FAME 2 subsidy increase and Ather's expansion to more cities. These are also the same reason for growth for other companies like Hero Electric, Okinawa, Ampere, etc...

Ather sales in first 3 years:
2019 = 2,289
2020 = 3,049
2021 = 15,925

Delays, product issues, limited availability were common with almost every EV, whether it is Ather, Chetak, TVS iQube, or Revolt. Ather always struggled financially and still struggling. In FY21 their revenue is Rs 80 crores while they spent Rs 31 crores on just ads. They reported Rs 200 crore loss in FY20 and Rs 233 crores loss in FY21. With higher pricing Ather always will be a niche product. With limited volumes they need to pay much higher prices for the components used.


Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review-a1.png

Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review-a2.png


Most people don't talk about all these things (delays, product issues, low sales) of Ather or Chetak because these are niche products due to pricing and limited availability.

People hate Ola for the hype they are creating for their products. But that is what is needed to be successful as a new player in the market. Ola needs to become a mass-market player as quickly as possible to achieve economies of scale and turn profitable. Without good pricing, wider availability, and hype it's not possible. Without manufacturing at scale, they will struggle to be profitable forever.

I am not talking about the likes Okinawa, Ampere, Hero Electric, etc... because they don't spend much amount on R&D and just import Chinese kits, assemble them here and sell as MADE IN INDIA products. All they need is sales and service which will be taken care by dealerships.

Source:
https://entrackr.com/2021/08/ather-e...st%20in%20FY20.

Last edited by sri_tesla : 27th January 2022 at 17:58.
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Old 30th January 2022, 09:21   #462
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Re: Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review

Question for new buyers.

How are you managing parts or spare parts, like if you meet with a minor accident, panel breaks or you need some small part, broken part... How is that going here?

I still think OLA should have created a delivery centre like tesla where people go and get their cars, one centre a city. This truck delivering scooter to you is going to be expensive by any calculation since repeated sales are going to happen.

One minor scratch and whole OLA service team will have to work through to sort it, which could be done at one delivery station in matter of minutes.
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Old 30th January 2022, 11:23   #463
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Re: Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review

Ola Electric Bangalore owners' Sunday morning ride organised by Ola. Good way to promote your vehicle Hope COVID protocols were followed.
Attached Thumbnails
Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review-fkuy0_5vqaak_dd.jpeg  

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Old 30th January 2022, 20:42   #464
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Re: Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review

Looks like Ola electric is already starting to fall flat on its promises.

Ola had promised to deliver the scooter to every home registered with the number plates. My S1 pro is still on temp registration, and it seems like in Kerala they have outsourced the registration to a 3rd party who is asking me to personally bring the vehicle to the RTO for registration. I shall be posting an update tomorrow with details about how much time I had to waste due to Ola's stupidity.

The least they could have done was have someone pick up and get the vehicle to the RTO. Pretty annoyed that I have to waste time on a Monday to get the scooter registered personally. How do they plan to scale if every scooter in Kerala would need to show up at the RTO with the owner personally?
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Old 31st January 2022, 12:46   #465
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Re: Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review

5 calls to ola support, 4 tickets and 2 tweets at Ola/Bhavish later they dispatched an Ola employee to take the scooter in for registering. Scooter got taken to the Kerala RTO and back 3.5 hours later. Honestly pretty annoying that I had to do all t his just to get them to do what they had promised in the first place. The product is great but their customer support right now it pretty bad. Cannot expect every owner to tweet at them every time they have a problem.
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