Traded in my motorcycle for a Hero Vida V1 Pro: Ownership experience

The biggest benefit of this electric scooter is the removable battery. Also, the EV can run on just one battery while the other is being charged.

BHPian m2badri recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I bought a Hero Vida V1 Pro yesterday after going through the reviews here and on YT as well. I thought I would share my experience - buying as well as riding the electric scooter and will try to address any questions that others might be interested in.

First, the pics of the Hero Vida V1 Pro that I bought -

I bought this from Pheonix Motors in Hyderabad (Hi-tech city). The purchase experience was good. The staff were knowledgeable and briefed about the product reasonably well. The reviews really helped to fill in the gaps of the experience center staff. They were renovating their showroom, so most of the demos and discussions happened in the cellar.

The experience center staff were very willing to provide multiple test drives. Since my office was nearby, I dropped in to check the vehicle and the test drive was provided immediately. I was wow-ed by the smoothness of the drive and noiseless motor - my first time driving an EV and that might be the reason for the wow factor!

I traded in my 10-year-old Bajaj Avenger 220 cc - which I had very sparingly used - 8800 kms in 10 years! It was mostly for small drives and for grocery pick-up. Only once did I drive this on a long drive to Ananthagiri Hills - Thanks to prodding by my brother-in-law who has a RE Interceptor!

I believe I got a decent sale price - it was 27500 Rs for the vehicle and 5000 Rs for the exchange bonus. It was 28 k but they later reduced 1 k since I forgot to renew my insurance (expired in Apr 2023 - my bad!).

Here are the pics of my Bajaj Avenger 220 CC - still looks great and is in very good condition.

Besides this, I received Rs 6.5k as cash bonus - Year end offer was going on. I couldn't get the loyalty bonus (7.5k) and corporate (2.5k) - for some weird reason, they didn't have my company listed as corporate.

There was an offer for Extended Battery Warranty through Acko for 2 more years - so I have 5 years and 60000 kms of battery warranty covered for this vehicle. The cost of this was around 8.5k (came free due to the YE offer).

There was a free subscription offer for the first 6 months - some of the connected features that come along with the vehicle - worth Rs 1250.

Overall, I paid around 1.20 lakhs after trading in my Bajaj Avenger and got this one. The insurance was around Rs 6.6k and around 4k for handling, registration and other stuff. I took a battery charger carrying case (Rs 315 - worth buying this one from the showroom - makes the charger very portable and easy to carry) and a side footrest for Rs 1.2k. The build quality was very good, so paid and got it fitted during the delivery of the vehicle.

Now coming to the ride quality, since I have been driving this for 2 days now - The vehicle is very smooth and the acceleration in Eco mode is adequate for solo driving. I live around Banjara hills therefore there are many ups (gradient - big and small) and downs, so I switch to the Ride mode to get some extra power.

I have observed that the Eco mode gives the maximum range but the display keeps changing and I think, it would be better not to pay attention to it. The ride mode can take you to a speed of more than 50 kmph very easily and should be used on open roads.

The cruise control on this vehicle works like a charm and I used it in most of my drive. I frankly didn't expect this to work as well as it does in cars - but I was mistaken, it works flawlessly. It's just that you have to learn as to how to engage (use it) and then it would be super easy on open stretches - believe me, it takes the strain from giving the accelerator. You would love this feature if you start to use it.

The instrument panel is well laid out and the UI is super easy to understand. I haven't started to use the Vida App through my mobile, since the activation would happen only after the vehicle is registered. I have seen a good number of videos to understand the app and the features that this offers - hopefully, I will start to use them once the activation is done after the registration.

The engine start / boot opening buttons are placed very closely and you will almost end up opening the boot all the time. One sore thing is that there is no owner or user manual (hard copy) provided and a link is provided for the buyer to familiarize with the controls and functions. This doesn't have pictures and everything is textual, therefore someone who hasn't seen the videos would find it very hard to follow. My suggestion would be to pay enough attention during the demo / delivery or see YT videos. There are a few ones which are really good to help us understand the controls and features. It really helped me a lot - more than the inputs that were provided by the showroom staff.

Another pain point is the closing of the boot - you will get used to it to know the knack to close/lock this and until such time, this would be a frustrating thing.

The biggest benefit of this EV is the removable battery. I stay in an apartment and don't have a charging point (a 5 amp switch is enough), therefore this was the only EV that suited my needs. The other benefit is that the EV can run on one battery, while the other is being charged - but the preference is to run it with both batteries - for both power and range. I think, the range for me in the last two days is around 100 to 110 kms and this keeps fluctuating therefore I am not going to pay attention to this.

Believe me, it's better to look at the battery % rather than the range - since the difference between sports and eco mode is around 35% range loss. Even when you are in Eco or Ride mode, you can accelerate more if required and the vehicle allows an automatic switch over to Sports mode for 30 seconds - will be very useful when you need a surge of power to overtake. This is a very thoughtful feature - though I would recommend a leisurely drive which you would enjoy for sure!

The touch panel is very responsive and I like all the details that are available now. One thing to include would be the Cruise speed set by the driver - this isn't shown on the display and you have to look at the speed to understand that it's the cruising speed and just like in our cars, you can increase and decrease the cruise speed by 2 kmph. There is a bit of a learning curve on this since you will invariably look at the handlebar (right) to fiddle through the multiple switches before you get it right.

There are two trip meters - very useful info - distance travelled / kms covered and average speed are available. The overall ODO is also displayed which is good to have.

In summary, the display panel is good, responsive and has most of the information that you would require. It's big (adequate) 7 inches TFT. There are after-market screen guards available on Amazon and there is a video on YT if you want to learn to fix this on the TFT panel.

In Hyderabad, there aren't many Vida charging stations, but the good thing is that Ather stations can be used for charging Hero Vida - some standarization of the charging ports is very good for customers as well as the operators as well. I have heard that none of the users have tested the Ather charging station. I shall check this out in a few weeks and will add an update accordingly.

So far the experience has been good and I have started to like the vehicle. My usage is very limited but I am planning to use it extensively during the weekends.

I have tried to cover as much information as possible. I will be glad to answer any questions or provide additional information on Hero Vida if any of the forum members are interested to know.

One important information - might be useful though the YE offers would cease to exist as of 31 Dec - nevertheless good to know. The showroom invoice (base price, tax, FAME subsidy) will be different from the invoice that you can download from the Hero Vida portal. I was seeing a difference of 12k and was very concerned & reached out to Vida support. They gave me information to some extent and asked me to work with the dealer. I sat with the dealer and they gave me some explanation, but somehow I feel that it would be good to ask for clarity on the base prices, tax, other charges and FAME II subsidy (should be available until Mar 2024) before you negotiate on insurance, handling charges, support, registration charges etc.

I wasn't aware of this prior and I decided to buy within 2 days (last day of the offer 31 Dec 2023!) but good to be clear before you commit to putting the cheque on the table. I can help to answer any specific questions on this aspect as well - to the best extent that I can.

I will end this review for now.

Thanks for your time and would appreciate any feedback.

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