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Old 1st May 2023, 20:49   #901
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Re: Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review

Ola Electric to refund Rs 130 crores to customers who bought EV charger.

Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review-screenshot-20230501-204912.png
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Old 4th May 2023, 18:54   #902
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Re: Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review

Quote:
Originally Posted by tech_rider View Post
No updates from service team. Also till i disconnected charger last time, charger was working, not sure if extra MCB setup if necessary, seems overkill to me. All electrical connections are connected to MCB in my home. And I did not get any updates from service team regarding failure. One person came on his ola scooter, tried charger on his scooter, confirmed it is not working. He called his team and said they will give new charger, mean while he left his charger with me as my battery charge was very low.
I got a new charger from ola yesterday. They took some videos with old charger and new one for claiming warranty. I was thinking warranty for charger is only 1 year. But service engineer told me that it has 5 years as I have opted for extended warranty. Peace of mind.
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Old 11th May 2023, 19:03   #903
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Re: Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review

A detailed break down of the Ola scooter.

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Old 15th May 2023, 20:26   #904
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Re: Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review

1K UP with my 2023 Ola S1 Pro


Hey everyone, Terzo(I'll explain) completed it's first 1000kms in the last week of April, and I'd like to share some more observations following my initial observations thread: (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/motor...-good-now.html (Ola S1 Pro Review | Analysis and observations of a 2023 model | Any good now?)
Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review-1up.jpg

So What's Terzo? It's the Ola S1 Pro. I named it after Lithium, the 3rd element in the periodic table that powers it. 'Terzo' means 3rd in Italian. This was inspired after Lamborghini named their full carbon car Sesto Elemento

Overall experience:
It has been a pleasant experience so far. Ride quality is excellent. Performance is phenomenal. Sport and Hyper modes still feel absurd for regular city driving. On the flip side, Normal and Eco modes feel slightly inadequate in stop-go and slow-moving dense traffic. Let me break it down:
  • Eco mode: Practically unusable, it's an emergency feature when you are low on charge. Everyone else would be overtaking you. Including cycles. It gets worse with a pillion aboard. You can't make it to the end of slight inclines, or out of a pothole/undulation.
  • Normal mode: I have used Terzo in Normal mode 99.5% of the time. It's enough grunt for city roads and traffic, even with a pillion. The only drawback, is not because of the ride mode, but because of the larger final drive, making a move from a standstill or during a U-turn is weird and difficult. You don't get a sense of increasing momentum to start balancing properly from start. You become stable only after 15-20km/h. The extreme lower end grunt is NIL. I don't know who's idea was it to make the scooter's driveability more suited to highways than city. It's a SCOOTER. Why did you focus on top speed more than city pickup, OLA? Ather is clearly better in this area, with it's shorter final drive, giving a great push from a standstill, but compromising on top speed. That's the right compromise for a scooter.
  • Sport mode: Actually, sport mode could be the Normal mode, but better. But I refrained to use it because of 2 reasons. One because we know how bad Ola's thermal management is. It's anyway gonna push me back to normal or eco mode depending on how hot it is. the second reason being the drawback said in Normal mode. It mitigates the initial grunt issue, but the other end becomes too aggressive. The middle band becomes too powerful and you reach 60+km/h in no time without realizing. I mostly drive on 2 lane city roads with moderate 2-wheeler and pedestrian traffic. As Jeremy Clarkson said, "Accidents happen not because of high speed, but because you come to a stop suddenly." As said in my initial review, the brakes are quite sharp, and lock up the rear wheel almost every time under sudden braking.
  • Hyper mode: This is definitely for the fun and adrenaline factor. I rarely found road conditions favorable to use hyper mode. It is definitely a hoot to ride and this mode speaks about the real performance of S1. You can easily smoke 150-200cc bikes until a certain speed I suppose. Typical EV character.
Accessories:
Ola's official Buddy step and center stand are STILL 'on their way', right from Jan 14th. I'm just gonna pretend I never ordered them and be happy once they arrive. I guess I'll be getting another chocolate box in the meantime.

I ordered a seat cover(pretty generic just to protect the original one) and a screen protector for the instrument cluster from Amazon. Seat cover came with a thread instead of elastic and it's a good thing. You don't have to deal with elastics giving up after some time and becoming loose.
Regarding the screen protector, I asked a person from a nearby smartphone accessories shop, and he was like "I install phone screen protectors everyday but I ain't touching something totally new that I haven't worked on". It's the exact same thing as a phone screen protector but I guess he didn't want to take liability. Asked a nearby Ola showroom and they turned me down too. Finally decided to take things into my hands, watched few youtube videos on how to install and started cracking on and surprisingly I did a great job. It was a bubble-free install.

Costs:
  • Seat cover: Rs.359
  • Screen protector: Rs.212
Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review-installing.jpg
Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review-finished.jpg
Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review-seat-cover.jpg

Charging:
Installed a 3 pin plug with an MCB and heavy-duty wires directly connected to my electricity meter box connection. Charging from 30%-100% takes roughly 4-4.5 hours. I restart the scooter after every 100% charge for cell balancing.
Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review-charging-point.jpg

A Hyper charger incident: Before installing the charging point, I had to rely on Ola's hypercharger near my house, and after charging to any amount to charge, the charging gun wouldn't release from my scooter's socket. It has happened 2-3 times and during the 3rd time, no matter what the charging gun did not release. I had to stand over there for straight 2hrs from 7:30PM. Contacted a few Ola service personnel through phone and they directed the operator of the petrol bunk to fully restart the entire hypercharger system. It did not help after restarting it twice. Finally after contacting and dealing with Ola helpline, a RSA person arrived, and to my utter shock, all he did was vigorously shake the gun and it came out in TWO SECONDS. I had to wait there for 2 hours, and the guy finished things off in 2 seconds. He said that the charging port might be tight due to it being a new vehicle, and asked me to bring it to the service center(Ambattur) for an inspection. I went there a week later, and he was on leave. Another technician told that there are a lotta vehicles and mine can only be attended in first come basis and it'd take a day. I returned after a wasteful 1hr up and down commute. Couldn't find time after that to visit. Home charger works perfectly.

Range:
I decided to data log the mileage after a 100% charge with my real usage pattern. This isn't a 'range test' where I cruise around in eco mode in a random route to nowhere the whole day. I logged the data with my actual usage, over a period of 11days.
Riding mode: Normal
Riding Style: moderately spirited, with an average speed of 40-50km/h.
Operating conditions: Mostly flat chennai roads, and hot chennai summer(around 35 degrees at the time of testing on average)
It is as follows:
Date | Distance | Drop in charge
31/4 - 5kms - 100 - 96%
1/5 - 0kms - 96-94%
2/5 - 0kms - 94-93%
3/5 - 11kms - 93-83% (2 riders)
4/5 - 14kms - 83-72%
5/5 - 0kms - 72-70%
6/5 - 3kms - 70-67%
7/5 - 3kms - 67-64%
8/5 - 4kms - 64-60%
9/5 - 5kms - 59-55%
10/5 - 33kms - 55-29%

Total kms done: 78kms
Total Charge consumed: 71%
Average Efficiency: 1% per km

So, what does it say?
If we extrapolate the data for remaining 29% charge at the rate of 1% per km, I can cover another 14kms until the battery reaches 15% in Normal mode. Hence, the 'real' real world range in normal mode, with spirited driving in above conditions is 92kms. When I mean spirited driving, I mean regular driving under speed limits, without factoring the battery loss during rapid acceleration.

What does it mean?
When fully charged, the scooter shows 135kms of range in Normal mode. Now that's a difference of 43kms. Thats pretty huge. But considering the factors affecting an EV's performance, 92kms is still bad while having the largest battery in the segment but 135kms is clearly a false indication like the rest of the company. I would expect under all suitable conditions in normal mode a range of around 110-115kms. I did not have the need to drive sedately hence we need to factor out the losses due to rapid acceleration to catch up with traffic instead of crawling in the left shoulder of the road. I'll try to repeat this log once again when Chennai cools down probably towards the end of the year to see if ambient temperature has a significant impact.

Miscellaneous:

I received my RC card exactly 2 months after paying for the scooter. I mentioned about delay in RCs specifically with OLA in my initial impressions, hence this was a surprise.

Out of nowhere my left side mirror became loose, and required tightening which was done using the provided spanner from the toolkit.
Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review-tools.jpg

I mentioned that the low beam is excellent but blinding the oncoming traffic in my initial review, and adjusted its level using the provided 4mm Allen key. You need to loosen a 4mm nut beneath the headunit from the front side(picture attached) and then you just move the headlight assembly slightly up or down. This has improved the amount of light falling directly on the road, aswell as not blinding oncoming traffic, so that they'll stop flashing at me thinking it's my high beam.
Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review-headlight-adjust.jpg

@BMW_Fan asked about availability of Hill hold in my unit, and it is available now, previously it was showing as coming soon. It's still in Beta. In my testing, it works as intended. The only gripe is the method of operation. Holding the brake for 3secs doesn't seem convenient all the times. Sometimes you might have to stop and go in intervals less than 3secs on an incline, and in those cases hill hold is practically inexistent. I hope Ola will fix it by 2037, after some minor delays.
Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review-hill-hold.jpg

I'm constantly keeping an eye on my side stand nut, following many incidents of side stand breakage issues. I suggest everyone to keep an eye aswell.
Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review-side-stand.jpg

Tyre Pressure: I fill Nitrogen to a pressure of 33PSI as recommended by Ola. The advantage of nitrogen is that it will drop at a slower rate compared to regular air. But, Both my tires dropped 5PSI within a span of 3-4 weeks. Is it normal? Should I check for any pressure leaks in my tires?

One interesting thing is that I get pulled over a lot now. Not by the cops, but by curious Activa and Jupiter riders. They ask about the feasibility of an EV2W. But strangely, many of them asked if driver's license is a requirement to ride an electric two wheeler. I guess they see every green plated 2 wheeler as a low powered low-speed electric cycle.
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Old 17th May 2023, 12:29   #905
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Re: Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review

Regarding the screen protector, I asked a person from a nearby smartphone accessories shop, and he was like "I install phone screen protectors everyday but I ain't touching something totally new that I haven't worked on". It's the exact same thing as a phone screen protector but I guess he didn't want to take liability. Asked a nearby Ola showroom and they turned me down too. Finally decided to take things into my hands, watched few youtube videos on how to install and started cracking on and surprisingly I did a great job. It was a bubble-free install.

[/quote]

Good observations and I agree with almost everything on what you have said except for the range part. 110-115 kms range is very low I feel for the pro version. Mine is an s1 and it shows 101kms on a full charge. And I get more than a 100kms from 100% down to 15% which is pretty decent.

Also can you share the links for the screen protector and the seat cover?
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Old 20th May 2023, 19:46   #906
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Re: Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ev_junkie View Post
Also can you share the links for the screen protector and the seat cover?
The range you quoted for your S1 is really impressive, can you share some tips to achieve a higher range? I heard that driving sedately in Sport mode improves range as you need to apply only part throttle to maintain sedate speeds of 30-40km/h, is it true?
Considering the vulnerabilities that affect an EV's range I guess my S1pro can also achieve a higher range of over 120kms(in normal mode), but I never intended to maintain such a driving style in order to achieve it, and if you notice in my log certain rides were with a pillion( I forgot to mention one more occasion)which brings down the range as well.

By the way, Here are the links you asked for:

Seat cover: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B0BQR2LKLJ?...CVE1KTMT0T8SAP

Screen guard: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B09X682KWG?...Z7HRNRDYBD8M2H

I couldn't find time to login hence the delay, but I guess it's not a problem anymore to face delays after becoming an OLA customer .

Last edited by aah78 : 21st May 2023 at 04:32. Reason: Quote trimmed, spacing.
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Old 21st May 2023, 03:27   #907
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Re: Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review

Quote:
Originally Posted by rdst_1 View Post
I am in the market for an Electric Scooter for a daily commute of around 50kms in Himachal.
How do we buy the Ola S1 Pro without the 'Performance Upgrade' accessory?
I want to Opt-out of "Performance Upgrade" but couldn't find a way to do it.

I tried sending an email to Ola Electric, but they sent totally unrelated template replies asking me to share order id.
I am looking to buy a S1 pro scooter without performance upgrade, as it would save me a few bucks now and if in future I feel the need, I would subscribe to the performance upgrade separately.

Also, need to ask if I'm correct in my understanding that "Performance Upgrade" is just a software feature, and if I opt-out, I would still get the same Hardware (as a normal S1 pro buyer with Performance Upgrade), right?

Last edited by aah78 : 21st May 2023 at 04:32. Reason: Quote trimmed, spacing.
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Old 21st May 2023, 18:14   #908
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Re: Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review

Quote:
Originally Posted by Buzzaper View Post
The range you quoted for your S1 is really impressive, can you share some tips to achieve a higher range? I heard that driving sedately in Sport mode improves range as you need to apply only part throttle to maintain sedate speeds of 30-40km/h, is it true?
Thanks for the links.I use regen mostly for the braking and do 90 percent of my driving for my office commute which is a mix of peak traffic in the evening and little traffic in the morning. I have noticed that maintaining a speed till 50 gives a very good range and it drops as we increase the speed above 60.

Also one other thing is to monitor your tyre pressures. This may seem obvious but I had seen range decrease of much more than the expected value as per the display when there was 3-4 psi lesser. I immediately filled both the tyres to 34psi and did a drive again and found it greatly helps with the battery consumption and increase range.

Just wanted to ask the other Ola owners as well, which regen mode does everyone use?
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Old 21st May 2023, 21:25   #909
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Re: Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ev_junkie View Post
I use regen mostly for the braking and do 90 percent of my driving . I have noticed that maintaining a speed till 50 gives a very good range and it drops as we increase the speed above 60.
I use regen 90% of the time too, and I maintain speeds under 50km/h with an average of 40km/h, but I enjoy the acceleration when ever possible so that might be a factor for range drop.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ev_junkie View Post
Also one other thing is to monitor your tyre pressures.
I had asked about this in my thread and mentioned that my tyres lose about 4-5 psi in a span of 4 weeks with nitrogen. I initially thought nitrogen would hold up for at least 1.5-2 months and did not check them for a month, hence the pressures dropped by about 4-5psi. But is it normal to lose pressure at such a rate and how often do you check your tyre pressures? Do you notice an increased belt noise when pressures are low?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ev_junkie View Post
Just wanted to ask the other Ola owners as well, which regen mode does everyone use?
I'm on the high regen mode. After driving an Activa for 2years, it feels scary to keep rolling on and on without any retardation or resistance (such as engine braking on ICEs), so I don't use low or medium regen modes.
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Old 22nd May 2023, 16:55   #910
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Re: Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review

Quote:
Originally Posted by Buzzaper View Post
I use regen 90% of the time too, and I maintain speeds under 50km/h with an average of 40km/h, but I enjoy the acceleration when ever possible so that might be a factor for range drop.
I had asked about this in my thread and mentioned that my tyres lose about 4-5 psi in a span of 4 weeks with nitrogen. I initially thought nitrogen would hold up for at least 1.5-2 months and did not check them for a month, hence the pressures dropped by about 4-5psi. But is it normal to lose pressure at such a rate and how often do you check your tyre pressures? Do you notice an increased belt noise when pressures are low?
I'm on the high regen mode. After driving an Activa for 2years, it feels scary to keep rolling on and on without any retardation or resistance (such as engine braking on ICEs), so I don't use low or medium regen modes.
Even I use occasional use of the high acceleration which is an added bonus of an EV

Also my tyre pressure only drops by 1 or 2 psi over a full month since I use it almost daily atkeast for quick short grocery runs.

I have never tried the high regen mode till now. Normal regen I found sufficient and relatable to my activa in terms of the engine braking. But personally I like the low regen mode where the ola seems to glide on the roads.
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Old 23rd May 2023, 18:38   #911
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Re: Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review

I am also seeing efficiency of just 1%/km in my s1 pro. I ride 40-60 range mostly in normal mode, occasionally in sports mode on 70s. I think this less range might have to do with hot climate in chennai and my weight (80kg). I estimate max 110-115 in normal mode (including last 15% in mandatory eco mode) if i drive sedative.
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Old 23rd May 2023, 23:49   #912
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Re: Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review

Quote:
Originally Posted by HiteshBhandari View Post
How do we buy the Ola S1 Pro without the 'Performance Upgrade' accessory?
I want to Opt-out of "Performance Upgrade" but couldn't find a way to do it.

I tried sending an email to Ola Electric, but they sent totally unrelated template replies asking me to share order id.
I am looking to buy a S1 pro scooter without performance upgrade, as it would save me a few bucks now and if in future I feel the need, I would subscribe to the performance upgrade separately.

Also, need to ask if I'm correct in my understanding that "Performance Upgrade" is just a software feature, and if I opt-out, I would still get the same Hardware (as a normal S1 pro buyer with Performance Upgrade), right?

If anyone has opted out, please help understand the process.
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Old 25th May 2023, 10:07   #913
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Re: Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review

Quote:
Originally Posted by HiteshBhandari View Post
If anyone has opted out, please help understand the process.
Hi with regards to Ola S1 Pro Without Performance package i do not think Ola is providing that option.

In the early days of deliveries as Ola was able to manufacture only S1 Pro they have given S1 pro to S1 customers with modifications to software so that performance is locked.

So only early S1 customers received such vehicle .

Once they have started manufacturing S1 and S1 Pro , they have stopped the same.
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Old 25th May 2023, 11:56   #914
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Re: Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review

Quote:
Originally Posted by Buzzaper View Post

Range:
I decided to data log the mileage after a 100% charge with my real usage pattern. This isn't a 'range test' where I cruise around in eco mode in a random route to nowhere the whole day. I logged the data with my actual usage, over a period of 11days.
Riding mode: Normal
Riding Style: moderately spirited, with an average speed of 40-50km/h.
Operating conditions: Mostly flat chennai roads, and hot chennai summer(around 35 degrees at the time of testing on average)
It is as follows:

Total kms done: 78kms
Total Charge consumed: 71%
Average Efficiency: 1% per km
I am quite surprised with this range. I was hoping that the pro model with 4kWh battery would give better range. I have an TVS i-qube (which has 3.04kWh battery) and I get around 102-105 Kms range. My driving style is more or less similar to yours. I drive in 75% eco mode and 25% power mode (only 2 modes available. Eco mode can get to 45kmph easily).

I am in market for a second EV scooter, and was looking at ola scooters. But with these range numbers do not inspire a purchase.

Quote:
Originally Posted by HiteshBhandari View Post
How do we buy the Ola S1 Pro without the 'Performance Upgrade' accessory?
I want to Opt-out of "Performance Upgrade" but couldn't find a way to do it.
I was trying to do that as well. We can save a good ₹21,000 but have to forgo hill hold/hyper mode etc, which I'm ok with. I asked about it in the showroom. They told me to book a vehicle and then send a mail to ola. Also, they told me not even one customer in their showroom had opted out of the performance upgrade, so they are also not exactly sure about the process.

Last edited by ComicCharcoal : 25th May 2023 at 12:04.
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Old 25th May 2023, 17:43   #915
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Re: Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review

Got an email today from ola electric asking to submit bank account details on Ola app to claim charger refund. As per the mail, they will verify bank account details and refund will be credited after some weeks.

Keep checking ola app order page of you are seeing claim refund button. Not sure if they are enabling refund option in staged manner or bulk.

Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review-screenshot_20230525174201.png

Ola S1 Electric Scooter Review-screenshot_20230525174128.png
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