Ola S1 Production Halted: S1 Production To Commence From Late 2022

Since Ola electric scooters are one of the most-awaited scooters in India and thanks to its high demand, the electric scooter has a long waiting period.

Now, with the production of Ola S1 halted, the company has taken an unusual step by giving the customer an option to upgrade to the Ola S1 Pro variant. For upgrading, the customers can pay the remaining amount or make the full payment when the company opens the final payment window on January 21.

Once the payment is made, it takes around 10-20 days from the date of dispatch for the electric scooter to be delivered at home.

Though this was the communication received by the customers who booked the Ola S1 electric scooter, the start-up company CEO, Bhavish Aggarwal tweeted a different narrative on Twitter.

According to Bhavish's tweet, the Ola S1 customers will get the electric scooter with Ola S1 Pro hardware but the customers have to 'Unlock' to get the additional features such as range, hyper mode, and a few more.

This means the customers won't be able to use the full potential of the upgraded hardware as the upgraded features will be locked and in order to use the upgraded features, customers must pay an additional amount.

After paying the additional amount, the customers will get an over-the-air update to unlock the S1 Pro features such as higher range, higher top-speed, higher charging rate, cruise control, hill-hold assist, Hyper mode and a few more.

Apart from that, according to a tweet from Ola Electric, Ola S1 customers who will get the upgraded hardware free of cost will have to pay Rs 30,000 to unlock the locked features.

As for the customers who do not want to unlock the additional features, it is most likely they will end up having a slightly heavier scooter.

This means the Ola S1 with upgraded hardware may not perform as well as the Ola S1 with the standard hardware, thanks to the added weight.

However, it is yet to be known whether Ola Electric has compensated for this weight disadvantage with a different tune for the Ola S1 scooter with upgraded hardware.

Recently, Ola Electric has now announced that the Ola S1 and S1 Pro electric scooters will soon be available for its customers in cities like Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad and Vishakapatnam.

With an aggressive price tag and a pre-booking fee of just Rs 499, Ola Electric received an overwhelming response from the Indian consumers with 1 lakh+ pre-bookings within the first 24 hours of opening its pre-booking portal.

Later, the customers who pre-booked the Ola electric scooter were able to book the Ola electric scooter by paying Rs 20,000. To make the full payment, Ola Electric even provided financial assistance through its Ola Financial Services (OFS).

According to Ola Financial Services, the lowest EMI scheme starts from Rs 2,999 for the Ola S1 and Rs 3,199 for the Ola S1 Pro variant.

According to Ola Electric, the Ola S1 can cover 121 kms on a single charge, whereas the Ola S1 pro can manage 181 kms. However, the company later revealed the 'True Range' of Ola S1 Pro is around 135 kms only.

Though both scooters use near-identical electric motors, the Ola S1 uses a slightly smaller 2.98kWh battery pack, whereas the Ola S1 Pro comes with a larger 3.97kWh battery pack.

Thoughts About Ola S1

As per the email communication received by the Ola S1 customers, customers can pay the additional amount and upgrade to the Ola S1 Pro electric scooter or wait till the company resumes the production of Ola S1.

However, as per the tweet from the CEO of the company, customers will get the Ola S1 with upgraded hardware but the 'Pro'' features will be locked.

As of now, the company is yet to make a clear statement regarding its plans for Ola S1 customers.