The easy to use vehicle, with its no-frill design, offers a few hiccups which Ola says can be rectified
Ola Electric has made a huge impression with the launch of its S1 and S1 Pro e-scooters. They promise to lead the segment not only in performance but also in terms of range and deliver segment-first features as well. Can they, however, live up to the hype that has been created around them? We recently had a short go on the S1 Pro, the more premium of Ola’s offerings.
The S1 Pro does not wow you with its design, but has an understated look that is defined by clean lines and no frills. Yet, it has a crisp and modern look befitting an electric scooter. Shut-lines and panel gaps are tight and consistent, and the material used does not feel cheap, even if they do not feel lush. Overall, the S1 Pro looks and feels like a well-finished vehicle, barring a few exceptions like a flimsy side-stand and oddly rubber-mounted grab rails.
The 7.0-inch TFT touchscreen made a fine first impression of its own, with great resolution, brightness, and responsiveness. Ola’s UI is fairly intuitive — we could pair our mobile via Bluetooth, but could not check out the navigation feature due to a persistent network issue with the scooter’s built-in e-SIM. It also features the usual music and phone call controls, but the more unique features promised by Ola – like cruise control and music playback through the scooter’s own speakers – were not activated and will only be made available at a later date via OTA updates.
The S1 Pro has no physical key of any kind and is unlocked by either entering a six-digit code on the touchscreen or using a mobile phone app. Even unlocking the S1 Pro’s 36-litre underseat storage compartment is done using the touchscreen.
The S1 Pro gets three riding modes — Normal, Sport and Hyper — the last of which the standard S1 misses out on. Our ride was restricted to a gated colony, where we circuited a roughly 2-km loop that comprised paved roads that were sparsely littered with uneven manhole covers, undulations and bumps, patches of gravel and sand, and some inclines. So, it was reasonably representative of what our roads are like, with the exceptions being the lack of any massive potholes, speed breakers, and of course, traffic.
The best thing about EVs is their instant torque and acceleration, so, I started my testing in Hyper mode. In this mode, Ola claims the 8.5kW permanent magnet motor takes the S1 Pro to 40kph in 3.0sec, which sounds quite rapid. And it felt quite rapid, too. There was a slight sluggishness off the line, but once past that, it pulled with a ferocity that you do notexpect from an urban scooter. It feels like one of the fastest accelerating scooters you can buy in India today. We just about managed to cross an indicated 100kph, but the road surface on this straight stretch being bumpy, did not make the vehicle feel sure-footed.
After about 10 minutes of sustained riding in Hyper mode, however, there was a drastic reduction in performance that came without any warning or message on the TFT dash. Top speed and acceleration were both significantly dulled, and by the end of it, the scooter felt downright lethargic, barely able to pick up speed going up an incline. After leaving it stationary for about 5 to 10 minutes, the performance began to return, indicating that this is probably a thermal issue with either the motor or the battery. Ola says that itcan be fixed with better software management. As things stand today, a number of scooters at the test location faced a severe reduction in performance after about 10 minutes of riding in Hyper mode. There was also one instance where the motor completely died, not responding to throttle inputs at all, in any of the modes. This rectified itself after a couple of restarts.
It is also worth noting that we rode these scooters on a crisp, cool winter morning in Bengaluru, and the thermal issues pertaining to the powertrain could well be more pronounced in a hotter environment and when stuck in traffic. With Ola targeting the entire nation with these scooters, it is unquestionable that swift progress needs to be made on this front.
A more pressing issue, though, was throttle calibration. It works like the Ather 450X, where you twist it conventionally to accelerate, and twist it the wrong way to dial-in regen.
A number of scooters on site continued to surge forward for about half a second after the accelerator had been completely released, which is a little startling to say the least, and very much a safety hazard. Again, Ola says that it is working on this and should be able to fix it with a software update, but we will have to see how that plays out. If Ola can indeed sort these things out with a software update, it will be interesting to see if they can do so without watering down the performance.
One area where Ola has excelled is the chassis. The Gabriel-sourced single-sided front suspension and horizontally-mounted rear shock delivered an excellent ride quality that put many conventionally-sprung scooters to shame. It is a well-balanced set-up that manages to flatten out most bumps while still offering great body control, and the ride felt plush, both solo and two-up.
The brakes stopped the scooter quickly and felt quite sharp; perhaps a little too sharp for a vehicle of this nature, especially since there is no ABS and little modulation or feel at the lever, leading to easy lock-ups, especially at the rear.
As a scooter, convenience and practicality are higher up in the priority list, and so the S1 Pro gets a reverse mode and USB charging. The large under-seat compartment is just as well, because the floorboard is not the most accommodating. There is a lack of space, which is exemplified by the curvature from the apron to the floorboard, as well as the prominent spine section, which will limit the ability to carry stuff on the floorboard. The lack of space is a function of the scooter’s compact dimensions, which extends to the seat as well, which felt cramped with two full-sized occupants on-board.
There certainly is a lot of potential in the Ola S1 Pro. At ₹1.10 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi, after FAME-II and state subsidies), it is considerably more affordable than something like an Ather 450X (₹1.32 lakh), and the 450 Plus (₹ 1.13 lakh). This is an attractive price point, and a number of things on the S1 Pro are in place — the design is nice, finish levels are good, and the chassis is well sorted out. There are, however, some fundamental shortcomings with the powertrain that Ola needs to address. Moreover, given our brief time with the scooter, we cannot comment on vital factors such as the range and charge times.
The scooter is, however, just a small part of the puzzle. Another big piece is Ola’s attempt to rewrite the rules of sales and service. Test rides, deliveries and servicing will all happen at your doorstep, according to Ola’s claims. It is all quite radical. Ola needs to figure all this out quite quickly, because its claims suggest that it has close to 1 lakh scooters to deliver. Hype can only go so far and it is now time for the company to start delivering on its incredible claims. The next few months will be very interesting.
