[Akshay6988]

I've only two questions
1) Are the switches on handle like the ones on the kids toys (soft, squishy and no tactile feedback) ? If that's the case, it's not a good thing. It'll definitely feel weird to operate the switches.

2) Is there any provision for a physical metal key (in future maybe?). I've used Vogo rental scooters in Mysuru and have had fair share of troubles with locking and unlocking the scooter via app. I'd definitely not want "this" experience on my premium Ola scooter ! Innovation is good, no doubts, but why fix something which is not broken in the first place ?

[sri_tesla]

Originally Posted by AnishRanjan

I really cant understand the logic of this company. It's a launch event and they don't even declare the price of the most important piece of kit which will eventually need replacement and lot of buyers will want to know that before they put their hard earned money on a EV. What are they trying to hide? High battery replacement cost? Only time will tell. And by the way which company says they will reveal the price of the battery eventually once the 3 year period approaches. Is this called professional, it all sounds very fishy to me and very unprofessional.

Calm down. There are probably hundreds of companies which are selling EVs (cars, 2 wheelers, buses, 3 wheelers, etc…) all over the world. I am yet to come across a single company announcing battery replacement cost at the time of the launch of the vehicle. Forget about rest of the world. What’s the official battery replacement cost of Nexon, Tigor, ZS or Kona EVs? What about the Ather, Chetak, iQube? Do you have the battery replacement prices for those?

[AnishRanjan]

Originally Posted by sri_tesla

Calm down. There are probably hundreds of companies which are selling EVs (cars, 2 wheelers, buses, 3 wheelers, etc…) all over the world. I am yet to come across a single company announcing battery replacement cost at the time of the launch of the vehicle. Forget about rest of the world. What’s the official battery replacement cost of Nexon, Tigor, ZS or Kona EVs? What about the Ather, Chetak, iQube? Do you have the battery replacement prices for those?

Please don't compare rest of the world with Indian market conditions. Lot of global players have burned their hands off by not understating the mindset of Indian customers. And also the urban IT guy might now be bothered but India is just not about them.

Ather had released the replacement cost of battery at the time of launch of 450X and it cost 60,000 to replace it.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by rascalangel

How does this code feature work? I mean is the vehicle always waiting for someone to press a button and show the screen to input the code? isnt this a nightmare scenario where when parked in market a child/adult can fiddle with the screen all day long? what if someone inputs wrong code several times and it just locks up?

Not really. Screen is switched off when the vehicle is left unattended.

You need to press the start button to wake up the screen - incase it is not activated with the proximity key, which prompts for the secret code before allowing the screen functions to be accessed. Pressing the start button does not 'start' the scooter if the code is not provided (in case of no proximity key) or the side stand is down.

Not sure if it would lock up though! Didn't verify that scenario.

Originally Posted by rascalangel

Also are there any clear pictures of the standies on the stage? like the one below. The battery pack seems to be of plastic unlike aluminium in Ather.

Battery pack is in the floorboard, not underneath the seat. Motor is exposed to all the muck from the rear tyres though!

Hope this picture helps?

Originally Posted by Akshay6988

I've only two questions
1) Are the switches on handle like the ones on the kids toys (soft, squishy and no tactile feedback) ? If that's the case, it's not a good thing. It'll definitely feel weird to operate the switches.

2) Is there any provision for a physical metal key (in future maybe?). I've used Vogo rental scooters in Mysuru and have had fair share of troubles with locking and unlocking the scooter via app. I'd definitely not want "this" experience on my premium Ola scooter ! Innovation is good, no doubts, but why fix something which is not broken in the first place ?

1. Very similar and yes - no tactile feedback. It takes time to get used to, for a couple of reasons as mentioned in the review - 1. The bulk around the switchgear means that the buttons are quite a stretch from the handlebars, especially for those of us with smaller fingers. 2. The unconventional layout and 3. The lack of feedback, especially with the gloves on.

One commonly used button that will irritate (till one gets used to it!) - is the 'turn right indicator'. I had to take my eyes off a couple of times.

2. No provision of a physical key. I believe Vogo used the internet for its keyless entry application, whereas the OLA scooter will use bluetooth for proximity access.

I expect the future entry level scooter/variant to miss out on quite a few features including this digital-only key.

[hemanth.anand]

Originally Posted by AnishRanjan

And also 50k is what you are guessing. We don't know the actual price

Now you are guessing that I guessed the price. You yourself wrote that Ather had announced the battery pack price during the launch of 450x and it was 60k (which is true). I have seen a recent repair estimate of an Ather that had met with a big accident and the cost of a replacement battery pack is exactly ₹52,500 (₹50,000 +5% GST). So from the date of announcement the price has come down if at all.

The 5 year battery life logic is based on what guarantee? It's all an unknown. For rich people it may not be an issue but for an average Indian family all of this will surely matter and influence their buying decision.

I'm no rich guy; I belong to an average middle class Indian family too and my Ather 450 will complete 3 years in another 3 months and I've not seen the range one bit after close to 11000 kms on the odo. I've based my estimate on that.

[snallagatla]

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

I'm no rich guy; I belong to an average middle class Indian family too and my Ather 450 will complete 3 years in another 3 months and I've not seen the range one bit after close to 11000 kms on the odo. I've based my estimate on that.

+1.

My Ather 450 completed 2.5 years(ODO 5500kms) and I have not noticed any range drop so far. It may sound foolish, I have not even completed my bike's first service and never encountered any problems. I definitely not recommend this but my point here is you would be saving costs on regular services and engine oil changes as well.

[fuzzydealhunter]

Originally Posted by AnishRanjan

Please don't compare rest of the world with Indian market conditions. Lot of global players have burned their hands off by not understating the mindset of Indian customers. And also the urban IT guy might now be bothered but India is just not about them.

Ather had released the replacement cost of battery at the time of launch of 450X and it cost 60,000 to replace it.

Actually Nexon EV is a Tata product. They have not released a price for the replacement either. So it seems like Ather is the exception and not the rule in this case.

I don't think anyone will be needing battery replacement via payment in the next 2 years, so whats the point being critical about replacement costs when they don't really matter now.

Have you booked a Ola scooter?

[rascalangel]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

You need to press the start button to wake up the screen

This is what i meant. Once the unscrupulous elements come to know this they will casually walk over to the parked scooter and try all combinations. Infact they dont have to sometimes, the finger prints could be tell all. New Ola owners need to be really careful.

Not sure if it would lock up though! Didn't verify that scenario.

Thanks.

Battery pack is in the floorboard, not underneath the seat. Motor is exposed to all the muck from the rear tyres though!

Hope this picture helps?

What i meant was un-obscured views of the posters highlighted with the red arrow below. I cant seen to find them in any video. Unlike Ather which bares all in showroom Ola seems to be apprehensive to show the internals.

[hemanth.anand]

Originally Posted by rascalangel

What i meant was un-obscured views of the posters highlighted with the red arrow below. I cant seen to find them in any video. Unlike Ather which bares all in showroom Ola seems to be apprehensive to show the internals.

This is all available in the Ola website.

[bwajlearn]

Is there any plan form Ola on how they are going to tackle used batteries or guidelines from government?

If they achieve million number sales, then this issue is something they have to deal with in a bigger way soon.

[Everlearner]

I had made advance booking of Ola scooter in July and later cancelled in Oct at it does not have removable battery which is a deal breaker for me. The Ola electric website shows refund as issued, but I never got the money. Today I checked in Ola app and it was showing a pending refund transaction in my Ola postpaid account and I was able to transfer the amount to my bank.

If you have booked using Ola postpaid and waiting for refund, try the below steps.

In the Ola app, goto payments section and select Ola postpaid.



It will show a pending refund transaction. Open the transaction



Proceed to claim the refund amount to your UPI id

[Electromotive]

Too many people are needlessly concerned about battery longevity. All the established Li-ion battery manufacturers (LG Chem, Samsung, CATL, Panasonic) claim 6-10 years of battery life if used within spec. This is why BEV manufacturers can provide an 8 year warranty on traction batteries.

Li battery chemistry is now quite advanced. Tesla batteries (from Panasonic) don't even degrade 10% after 200000 miles.

Larger batteries like on cars are going to last longer than two wheelers because they are cycled less frequently, but even by conservative estimates one can expect two wheeler batteries to retain 70-80% capacity after 5-6 years. This is without even accounting for buffer capacity which is generally in the range of 10-20%. The buffer capacity cancels out capacity loss from degradation so basically there is going to be very little capacity/range loss in the first 6 years of a vehicle's life.

[antz.bin]

Ola S1 Pro makes 1 thing ample clear. It has marked the beginning of the end of petrol powered scooters. Things are only going to get better from here for EVs, worse for petrol scooters.

Petrol scooters usually have 3.5-5 liters of tank capacity. That gives them a range of about 150-200km (optimistically assuming 40 kmpl, i.e. normal city riding). To get this range, one needs to spend Rs.350-550 (depending on tank size and *current* petrol price).

Ola S1 Pro, evidently is just about reaching the lower end of the spectrum on the Petrol scooter tank range (in normal mode). This it achieves by using ~4 kWh of electricity. In Maharashtra, which has the highest electricity rates in India, it costs Rs.52.8 (@ Rs.13.2/kWh). This cost will be lower in other states with cheaper electricity. Conservatively speaking, it will cost at least 85% cheaper (or about 1/7) if not more than a petrol powered scoot. No way any petrol powered competition can stand up against those odds.

Ather did not cause such a stir because its range was still at 50% of the lowest range from an ICE scooter. Also they had gone overboard with the subscription plans. I mean, 2000/month to unlock a faster mode? Really? 2000/month = EMI for an extra lakh on a 5 year car loan! It practically destroyed all the cost advantages being an EV gave Ather.

Coming back to the Ola S1, the product isn't finished yet:
* They need to figure out how to mimic the engine braking behaviour of ICE scooters with regen.
* They need to figure out the Hill hold situation
* They need to calibrate the throttle, they seem to have done that in the few days between the media rides and the customer test rides.

Another thing I noticed in the reviews was the eerie silence being a problem when a user may not realize that the scooter is ON and may cause an accident while fiddling with with the throttle (I have seen this happening on a very silent Celerio AMT when my friend's wife reversed her car into the building gate because she pressed the throttle inadvertently not realizing that the engine was actually running.)

But these are mostly software. These can probably be fixed using OTA updates. The meat of the matter is in the battery, the motor, the acceleration and charging. Those they have gotten right. 99% who have home charging will never need the Hypercharger network. What they have right now is an MVP scooter. It is not finished, but it *works*. They have invested so much into this, they will figure it out. They have to!

#InOtherNews At my current residence, I do not have allocated and covered parking. Next month I am moving to a place where I will have both. Part of the reason to move was so that I can participate in the EV revolution. @Ola, please don't disappoint me.

[BlackRaven]

Originally Posted by fuzzydealhunter

Actually Nexon EV is a Tata product. They have not released a price for the replacement either. So it seems like Ather is the exception and not the rule in this case.

I don't think anyone will be needing battery replacement via payment in the next 2 years, so whats the point being critical about replacement costs when they don't really matter now.

Have you booked a Ola scooter?

Exactly. Globally, Lithium chemistry batteries have already inched towards $100/KW. so a ~4KW should cost much lesser 3 years from now. We could consider the whereabouts of INR 35K then. Again, if the cell quality is good and the BMS does its job well, the vehicle is not always driven in Hypermode, Not always fast charged, it should last about 7 to 8 years losing about 20% of its performance.

[FuelInjector]

Wonderful review sir. OLA seems to have a winner at hand.
However to folks whom i speak to, they seem to be biased towards Ather. Would that be because of the first entrant advantage or do you feel their product is better?

nonetheless its refreshing to see many entrants in this league.