[AutoNoob]

The below story was published in ET Prime (paid subscription) on Dec 12, 2023. It details how Ola handled a case of fire in its scooter. The secrecy and silence in this case from Ola is in stark contrast to the case in which Ola published the data from scooter to prove case of over-speeding and put itself in clean.

PS: I am not owner of any Ola product or related to any competitor of Ola. I believe such news stories must not be restricted behind a paywall and therefore I am reproducing the same here for everyone's awareness.

[Source: ET Prime]

Ola, Bhavish Aggrawal, and the mystery of the fire that disappeared without smoke

Synopsis

It’s been one and a half months since a newly bought Ola Electric scooter went up in flames in Nelamangala near Bengaluru. The stoic silence of the company about this incident raises questions on how fire incidents involving Ola Electric scooters are being dealt with. As Ola Electric is gearing up for an IPO, the company has to come clean on complaints around scooter fires, service issues and product quality.

November 14, 2023

A couple of minutes past midnight, the Adarsh Nagar neighbourhood of Nelamangala woke up to some unusual noise. Then they heard their neighbour, an elderly woman, crying for help from the upstairs of her rented house. Her husband and sons were fighting a fire downstairs.

It was only a few hours after everyone went to bed after Diwali festivities in this housing colony in the town 40km off Bengaluru. But it turned out to be a nightmarish Diwali for the big family of nine members, including an elderly couple, their three sons, daughters-in-law, and two toddlers.

[CarNerd]

Maybe he is secretly working on a script to blame the customer for causing the fire. Who knows he might even come up with a movie based on it! If the same thing happened in the US, people would have sued the company left and right till it filed for bankruptcy. But we live in a place where it's easy to fool all the people all the time.

This is another link that I found as the above link is behind a paywall: https://www.inventiva.co.in/trends/o...oogle_vignette

[doga]

Gives Mahindra Scorpio tyres coming off vibes! I do not have any hopes of consumer laws being tightened and impunity of big corporations reined in. I was hearing about 6 airbags being mandatory but that never happened and we all know why!

Given the heft and might of big corporations, it's the duty of the government to enact laws to at least give some powers to the lowly consumer so he stands a fighting chance but no it's too much to ask for!

Apologies for this rant but I feel very frustrated and disturbed with the general state of things in this country.

[FASTLIFE]

Nomatter how many govt's change, they remain spineless. Not a single Minister in the history of India comes from a rich family, that had the capability to own cars with their own money, not corrupt money. Ola paid the right people at the right time and avoided the nano way, (although I believe nano was hijacked by maruti, parts maker can be paid higher than the total supply amount/ profit amount) . No lemon laws in India is the proof we don't live in New India, it's just the same with new clothes.

[RunGaDa]

Originally Posted by CarNerd

If the same thing happened in the US, people would have sued the company left and right till it filed for bankruptcy.

Yes. Exactly. In India it’s stupid to prioritise inefficiency, ignorance over lives of customers.

Ideally rules must be made to recall every single vehicle in the batch.

[AutoNoob]

Originally Posted by AutoNoob

The below story was published in ET Prime (paid subscription) on Dec 12, 2023. It details how Ola handled a case of fire in its scooter. The secrecy and silence in this case from Ola is in stark contrast to the case in which Ola published the data from scooter to prove case of over-speeding and put itself in clean.

PS: I am not owner of any Ola product or related to any competitor of Ola. I believe such news stories must not be restricted behind a paywall and therefore I am reproducing the same here for everyone's awareness.

Last edited by SmartCat : 6th January 2024 at 15:24. Reason: Content behind paywall has been removed

I do understand the moderator action of removing the content behind paywall, but just hope exceptions should be made for such critical matters related to public safety. Anyways, I am putting more information regarding the incident, that is available in public domain.

Twitter 1:



Twitter 2:



Video of media coverage of the incident :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4DszGxMN6g

The police action (inaction) in this case was quite unlike how Kerala police acted in another Ola scooter fire incident in Nedumangad near Thiruvananthapuram in July 2023. The Kerala police promptly filed an FIR [copy of FIR attached at end of this post, it's in Malyalam] with details of the fire episode and initiated investigation. Though it's another matter that outcome of the investigation is unknown.

Ola Electric scooter fire being investigated in southern Kerala - July 2023
[Source: Economic Times]

An Ola Electric scooter caught fire in a house in a village in southern Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram district late last week. The cause of the fire is unknown. An FIR has been filed by the Nedumangad police station on the incident, which occurred at around 3am on July 19.

Investigations are going on, according to the local police authorities, who added that this was not a case of arson.

[Santy19]

I had a brief conversation regarding OLA and its reliability with an OLA R&D person, and the conversation was as follows:


Q: Why are OLA products soo unreliable?
A: Each and every product is rushed to the market, we are aware of the flaws, despite this company decides to launch coz they want to adhere to their timelines

Q: Why then even the later products are also unreliable?
A: The Ola S1 platform is bought from European brand as we all know, its developed for European conditions with European standards, which makes this platform modified for India and not made for India, further adding to the misery the component quality was lowered to build it at a cost, all these add up making it unreliable. If it was to be built at European standards it would be a 3 lac rupee scooter

Q: After all these improvements, R&D and updates is any scooter worth buying?
A: The Ola S1 pro in its recent avatar is quite reliable, rest all are still non recommendable.

Q: How it’s like to work at OLA R&D, is it stressful?
A: Its alot more stressful than you think, management wants to rush things and start production, as they are also scaling up the capacity, we are trying to test it to the limits, but still people find ways to break it and they dont fail to make a scene out of it.

Q: How the future ola products be, will the S2 platform be reliable and niggle free?
A: we hope so (with a smile)

[pkulkarni.2106]

I understand it must be stressful, when there's a rush to push things to market/production. But expecting the buyers not make a scene is too much in my opinion. I've seen some photos where the front fork was broken. Not to mention the infamous fires.

Both these issues are potent to cost lives of people (buyers, others on the road as well as the occupants of apartment complexes). And the customer shouldn't make a scene. Got it

Originally Posted by Santy19

Q: How it’s like to work at OLA R&D, is it stressful?
A: Its alot more stressful than you think, management wants to rush things and start production, as they are also scaling up the capacity, we are trying to test it to the limits, but still people find ways to break it and they dont fail to make a scene out of it.

[Santy19]

Originally Posted by pkulkarni.2106

I understand it must be stressful, when there's a rush to push things to market/production. But expecting the buyers not make a scene is too much in my opinion. I've seen some photos where the front fork was broken. Not to mention the infamous fires.

Both these issues are potent to cost lives of people (buyers, others on the road as well as the occupants of apartment complexes). And the customer shouldn't make a scene. Got it

It was a very casual talk with one of their employees, he was neither representing the brand in anyway nor his statements were well thought of.

And yes I agree, fatal flaws needs to be called out and govt should step in, neither their products nor their charging stations are reliable.