[Venkatesh]

Ola Electric sells mere 111 vehicles in December.

FADA President Vinkesh Gulati about Ola Electric Scooter deliveries :

[Axe77]

Isn’t it inappropriate for a FADA president to be making such judgmental statements about a manufacturer? Unless its the direct to customer aspect that is actually irking him. As FADA president.

Also, they’re still in extended launch phase. I can understand if this was the sentiment 12 months into launch.

I’m not taking away from various things that Ola can / could have done better and its clear their roll out has been botched but for a FADA president to make such a remark seems unwarranted.

[sri_tesla]

Originally Posted by Venkatesh

Ola Electric sells mere 111 vehicles in December.

FADA President Vinkesh Gulati about Ola Electric Scooter deliveries :

FADA (Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations) president will be obviously more worried about Ola's business model of direct selling to customers without third-party dealerships. His source is FADA research but he is just quoting the Vahan dashboard numbers. As per Vahan itself, it's already up from 111 to 238 yesterday. There is a lag in Vahan dashboard numbers which is also reported by Ather CEO Tarun Mehta recently. Also, Vahan is yet to update temporary registration numbers in Vahan. All the Gujarat deliveries are with temporary registration. Ola delivered many vehicles in AP and TS which won't show up in Vahan at all.

The media is reporting that Ola has dispatched around 4,000 vehicles from the factory in December. Registration of these will happen in the next 2-3 weeks. All the companies generally report dispatch to dealerships as monthly sales. It's too early to tell if the direct-to-consumer model is a failure based on just 2 weeks of sales. FADA will certainly hope that's the case.

[fuzzydealhunter]

Of course the FADA president is threatened by their livelihood being upended by the direct to consumer model. Is anyone really surprised here? He is just trying to show value that they bring......I bet Elon Musk would have a thing or 2 to say about direct vs dealership model as well.

[pogo0120]

Originally Posted by muni

On top of this, Ola hasn't stopped its marketing gimmicks. They have shipped S1 scooters with S1 Pro hardware and it will be unlocked by paying 30k. What kind of a sick joke is that. They are putting the bigger battery pack into S1 and controlling with a software update. They dint make enough S1 scooters it appears or there is some issue with it.

I donot see any problem with this. This is a perfectly legitimate business, All or most of the software programs have features locked. A free trial software is nothing but a full blown software with features locked. We see this all the time in software products. I donot see any issues here.

On the technical note, being a person who worked on Lithium, Nickel Metal Hydride batteries, I think those guys getting a software locked big battery, S1 with S1 pro battery, capacity locked by software, are really LUCKY.

I am pretty sure, these batteries will last twice as long as regular smaller battery. If a 4KWhr battery is software restricted to charge only 3KWhr, then if the chemistry is NOT lithium Iron Phosphate but Lithium Polymer or Li Ni Al or LI NI Mn or other, then we are not exercising the whole chemical material of the battery. The battery is never fully charged and thermal management during charging will be lot better.

I expect life of this battery to be almost twice as smaller size battery. My guess, with experience on working on these batteries.

[Gansan]

Originally Posted by Gansan

I cancelled my booking on 24th December. Till yesterday the app status was showing "refund under process" and this morning it showed as "refunded". But I can't see any credit in my accounts.

I have received the full amount now without any deductions.

[Electromotive]

FADA sweating over potential irrelevance makes me so happy. I hope OLA's direct selling model succeeds and sets a precedent for other automakers.

I support any and all innovations and technologies that cut out the middle-men. E-commerce like disruption in the auto sector will be a welcome change. My neighborhood home appliance shop pivoted to selling construction materials because people started buying appliances online.

The fewer middle men, the more market linked the fate of a business becomes - there is more pressure to innovate and remain competitive, there is less chance to manipulate supply and demand, better margins for the OEMs and consequently better prices for customers. Everyone but the middle-men wins. The only catch is we need stronger customer protections because the manufacturer or their representative is now not as reachable as the city dealership.

[muni]

Originally Posted by pogo0120

I donot see any problem with this. This is a perfectly legitimate business, All or most of the software programs have features locked. A free trial software is nothing but a full blown software with features locked. We see this all the time in software products. I donot see any issues here.

On the technical note, being a person who worked on Lithium, Nickel Metal Hydride batteries, I think those guys getting a software locked big battery, S1 with S1 pro battery, capacity locked by software, are really LUCKY.

I am pretty sure, these batteries will last twice as long as regular smaller battery. If a 4KWhr battery is software restricted to charge only 3KWhr, then if the chemistry is NOT lithium Iron Phosphate but Lithium Polymer or Li Ni Al or LI NI Mn or other, then we are not exercising the whole chemical material of the battery. The battery is never fully charged and thermal management during charging will be lot better.

I expect life of this battery to be almost twice as smaller size battery. My guess, with experience on working on these batteries.

My gripe is with the constant need /itch from Ola to keep the excitement going without getting the basic things right. Time to deliver and many people who have paid in full are losing patience and will only get more frustrated with these things.

What if someone decides to unlock the features on a later date. How will the charging work and the efficiency part.70% of the cells would have been used to charging and discharging and the 30% will start from then onwards. Curious about this aspect.

Not to mention the constant added weight. The original design had 3 banana shaped removable batteries and it would have done Ola a world of good and would have been more modular and practical. Since other Scooters are coming out with swappable batteries, its just a matter of time where Ola will have to adopt or add it.

[Mafia]

I suppose Ola will need a good 3 to 6 months to sort out the production and quality issues.

What surprises me is the amount of negativity directed towards Ola from most quarters. Sure they are using media hype to garner attention, and they are unable to keep to their own commitments.

But where credit is due, Ola has a vision that no other company has as a startup. They are trying something that will bury them or put them in the stratosphere or things to come. The nay Sayers seem to be too many.

Surprisingly, even Team-BHP members who are positive of such developments have been on a negative streak. Some of the negative members are not even potential customers.

I see the quality issues and the poor processes of Ola and sometimes feels like only hype.

[84.monsoon]

The disintermediation of the distributors is happening in virtually every industry. Recent headlines about FMCG distributors in Maharashtra wanting to boycott Hindustan Unilever and Colgate products is another example of the similar tensions between distributors, retailers and manufacturers happening in yet another industry. In the case of FMCG sector, the distribution model is highly inefficient with tens of thousands of small distributors spread all over the country and a low level of automation, opaque data on inventories and intermediate sales, plus waste and inefficiencies in transport and storage of products.

The pharmaceutical distribution sector is even worse, with even smaller distributors, and a confusing web of discounts, rebates and incentives, which fuel artificially inflated month-end sales reporting. Both of the sectors are ripe for disintermediation - startups with large staches of cash such as Udaan, Jumbotail and others wanting to buy directly from the manufacturers and use efficient and large scale warehousing and transportation infrastructure to make distribution faster, cheaper and more information-rich for both manufacturers and retailers. Siimilar pressures are visible in the Pharma industry with associations of distributors, chemists and druggists pushing back against e-pharmacies.

Manufacturers will ultimately do what is good for them and their end-customers, and are least bothered about the long-term well-being of the middleman. Where the FMCG and Pharma sectors have a 3-tier (and even 4-tier with sub-stockists), distribution model (Manufacturer - Wholesaler - Retailer), the automotive industry has only two tiers, with manufacturers and dealers. This should technically make it even easier for dysentery mediation to happen in the automotive industry.

However, what sets apart the automotive dealer from an FMCG dealer is the fact that the product has more content richness and a more complex buyer decision process. The typical car buyer wants to see and experience the product, get a number questions about the product answered and feel reassured that there is support available after the sale, throughout the life cycle of the product. The dealer fulfills this need by having a physical space where a prospective customer can come, see, touch and feel as well as test drive the product. The dealer typically also has a service workshop attached to them, providing the reassurance that the buyer will be looked after far beyond the time of the sale.

Today's dealership model is over-engineered to achieve these objectives . A buyer can see, touch and feel the product even with a small display space in a mall! The test drive can be accomplished by bringing the vehicle to the buyers home. And the fact that a dealer has a service operation attached to them is a bit of a re herring especially in the big cities today - the actual service centre is located far away from the dealership, typically in the outskirts of the city with almost no overlap in terms of the personnel who operate the two.

In today' digital age and with the gig economy at work, these functions can easily be delivered through a digital, asset-light model, by the manufacturer themselves,. They could appoint qualified gig worker agents (team-bhp members? ), who can meet and speak intelligently to the prospective buyers to help them select a car confidently. They could have depots plus service stations in the vicinity of the major cities. Marketing agencies can make sure the great displays of the car are put up at public spaces such as airports, malls and others. Sales agents who are gig workers can also make sure test drives happen at a customer's doorstep. Car repair and maintenance workshops in the outskirts in the cities function with the help of gig working drivers who pick up and drop the car from/to customer homes.

So, the level of friction against dis-intermediation in the automotive dealership space is way less than in the FMCG or Pharma industries, where the coverage required is much wider with thousands of small towns and villages that need to be serviced. FADA realises this imminent threat and will speak out against any signs of this happening anywhere in the industry. Mercedes is also heading in this direction with the direct sales model, although in the initial stages, they have indicated the dealerships will continue to exist as-is, just to avoid resistance to initial implementation of the model. Once it settles down, I am sure they will start removing some of the dealerships one by one.

[SKC-auto]

Originally Posted by muni

What if someone decides to unlock the features on a later date. How will the charging work and the efficiency part.70% of the cells would have been used to charging and discharging and the 30% will start from then onwards. Curious about this aspect.
.

That's not how it works. Suppose S1 pro has all cells charging from 0-100%, S1 will have cells used between 10-85%, so you will end up with larger buffer, cells will be healthier.

Since the motor power is also limited in S1, we may have better heat management in S1 battery. I was actually excited about this news as I booked S1.

[Blackbolt]

Well I knew it was beta product and it’s not our main ride so went ahead with the experiment. Went to meet a friend and the bike refuses to start! It had at least 70% charge, had been driven for less than 35 kms after delivery. Screwed.

Can’t seem to upload the video here :

[Sebring]

Do we have any info on the heat management system (on this scooter)?

Originally Posted by SKC-auto

we may have better heat management in S1 battery. I was actually excited about this news as I booked S1.

[SKC-auto]

Originally Posted by Blackbolt

Well I knew it was beta product and it’s not our main ride so went ahead with the experiment. Went to meet a friend and the bike refuses to start! It had at least 70% charge, had been driven for less than 35 kms after delivery. Screwed.

Can’t seem to upload the video here :

https://twitter.com/ved_deven/status...405958657?s=21

I don't know how it should work, but why are you starting with the charging cable connected. Most EVs do not turn on when the cable is connected.

[Blackbolt]

Originally Posted by SKC-auto

I don't know how it should work, but why are you starting with the charging cable connected. Most EVs do not turn on when the cable is connected.

I was asked by the RSA to plug it in. Without the charger it wasn’t even beeping. Waiting for RSA folks to come and see the bike now.