Ola Electric Scooters in Showrooms Soon
Ola had received more than 100,000 pre-bookings in the first 24 hours of opening bookings.
BENGALURU : Ola Electric Mobility Pvt. Ltd ended weeks of speculation on Sunday by unveiling its S1 and S1 Pro electric scooter models, priced competitively to cater to value-conscious customers, as it takes on other two-wheeler electric vehicles (EV) and petrol vehicle brands.
S1 is priced at ₹99,999, excluding subsidies by state and governments, while S1 Pro model is priced up to ₹129,999.
Buyers can purchase its e-scooters from 8 September with deliveries beginning in October in 1,000 cities and towns across the country.
Ola will sell its scooters through an omnichannel model, including both online and offline experience centres that it is in the process of setting up. It aims to have one experience centre in every city over the next three months.
“The EV transition is very important for our country and the whole industry needs to adopt it. We have to build the technology in India. By 2025, all two-wheelers in the country should be electric. The EV revolution is here to stay whether the incumbents like it or not.
We want 50% of all electric two-wheelers produced for the world to be made in India,” Bhavish Aggarwal, chairman and group chief executive officer of Ola, said at a media round table.
Ola had received more than 100,000 pre-bookings for its scooter in the first 24 hours of opening bookings to the public and said it will have a production capacity of 1 million e-vehicles soon.
The demand came not just from the metros, as it is an urban mobility product, but also from smaller towns, Aggarwal said.
“The S1 and S1 Pro are industry leading products with best-in-class range, speed and cost,” he said.
The cheaper S1 scooter, with a 2.98 kilowatt-hour battery pack, will have a range of 121km on a complete charge and will have a top speed of 90km per hour. The S1 Pro will have a larger 3.97 KwH battery pack, which will give it a range of 181km and it will have a maximum speed of 115km per hour.
Ola Electric’s scooter will directly compete with the scooters of Ather Energy, Ampere Electric, Okinawa Scooters, Tork Motors and Hero Electric, as well as Honda Activa.
SoftBank-backed unicorn Ola Electric, set up in 2017, is the EV arm of ride-hailing platform Ola, operated by ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd. Its has been launched at a time that Elon Musk-led Tesla Inc. is set to make its India entry, the government is trying to boost the manufacturing of EVs, their batteries and other components, and amid soaring petrol prices. Ola Electric also aims to launch the e-scooter in overseas markets, including Europe, Latin America and other parts of Asia, which Aggarwal said will “happen soon”.
“Europe has opened up more towards EVs and two-wheelers. Over the next 4-5 years, there will be a lot more evolution across markets,” he said.
Ola Electric is building what it calls a ‘Future Factory’ on around 500 acres in Tamil Nadu’s Krishnagiri district. When ready, it will produce 10 million e-scooters every year, making it the largest two-wheeler maker globally. The first phase itself will produce 2 million e-scooters, to be retailed in India and exported.
In comparison, market leader Hero MotoCorp produces around 6.5 million two-wheelers annually, while 22-25 million traditional two-wheelers with internal combustion engines are sold in India every year.
Ola will also roll out an at-home service network in every city it sells its scooters. Buyers can expect a 40% lower total cost of ownership for its EVs compared to petrol-powered scooters, Aggarwal said.
Source: livemint
