Getting to know about Ola Scooters is interesting

By Editorial Friday February 10, 2023

Ola is a company based in Bangalore, Karnataka in India. There can be very few people who are not aware of this company. When Ola cabs started its operation as a cab provider in India, we all felt the seamless experience it gave to us and opted for it for our travels.

In India, Ola has competed with Uber which is from the US and gives us competitive services when it comes to renting a vehicle. Ola was founded in 2010 and gave us the facility to book a ride or rent a car with an exceptional trajectory of growth over the years.

With such massive development in innovation and technology, Ola has initiated their sustainable approach to lead the automotive market by creating electric scooters for Indian consumers. Ola Electric was co-founded in 2017 by Bhavish Aggarwal, Ankit Jain, Anand Shah, and Ankit Bhati.

But apart from Bhavish Aggawal, the remaining co-founders stepped down from their positions in the company. Bhavish Aggarwal is currently the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Ola Cabs and Ola Electric.

Stay tuned in this piece of information to learn about Ola electric scooters, the price of Ola electric scooters, how to book an Ola electric scooter, and many more. If you are liking what you read, consider subscribing to our ‘Free Newsletter’ for getting all the latest updates about the industry and business.

What is Ola Electric all about?

Ola sorted the idea of an electric scooter at a time when the world was focussing on eliminating carbon emissions and the cost of fossil fuels is rising at an uncontrollable rate. It is also evident that considering the non-renewable characteristics of fossil fuels, electric mobility is the way to go.

Ola has made the most apt tagline that says ‘Ready or not, a revolution is coming’. Some of the key features of Ola Electric scooters are peepy acceleration along with great handling capabilities to instill confidence in the rider during motion.

The company knows how India admires a well-designed usage of space and thus Ola Electric comes with an impressive boot space that can store up to two helmets. The space is also figured to have space for necessary things needed for a daily ride.

Ola has whole-heartedly said that it will continue to provide cab service along with manufacturing electric scooters. Ola Electric scooters come in two variants namely, S1 along with the S1 Pro, their premium line of scooters. The Ola S1 starts at about Rs. 99,999 and the S1 Pro starts at about Rs. 1,29,999.

In the month of May 2020, Ola acquired an electric scooter maker in Amsterdam named Etergo. The Ola Electric scooter states that it is based on the platform of Etergo and ensures performance and reliability.

The Ola Electric scooter flaunts a marvelous specification with an alloy wheel of about 12 inches along with a twin-pod headlamp that is entirely LED. The design is very neat and curves effortlessly throughout the body. The scooter also has a single-sided suspension that is telescopic along with a horizontally fitted rear suspension.

The front wheel is fitted with disc brakes to ensure strong stopping power and the footpegs are beautifully designed to sync with the design of the body. The tail light is very eye-catching and has grab handles it. The batteries of the Ola scooters are not swappable and have a decent range. The S1 Pro will need about 6 hours and 30 minutes to be fully charged at home and the S1 will require about 4 hours and 50 minutes to be charged fully at home.

The total claimed distance range of Ola S1 is about 121 km and the S1 Pro will go about 181 km with a full charge. But further reports suggested that the S1 Pro will go about 135 km in more real traffic and road conditions. The S1 Pro is also exclusive with a Hyper Mode.

The Ola Electric scooter comes with a TFT display that is about 7 inches that features an infotainment system along with navigation and several other information. This system is powered by Android and offers technological marvel to buyers. A few color options of Ola scooters are Matt Black, Midnight Blue, Liquid Silver, Neo Mint, Porcelain White, Millennial Pink, Jet Black, and many more.

The future of mobility is electric and Ola Electric is surely making its mark in the market. Along with a range of over 100 km, the Ola Electric scooters can be charged with a 5-watt socket by using the portable 750-watt charging adapter that is provided to the Ola Electric scooter by the company. The Ola scooters can also be charged more quickly in the ‘Hypercharger’ stations that the company is setting up operational in about 400 cities in India.

The first Hypercharger station of Ola Electric was launched on October 25th, 2021. Ola Electric also collaborated with StoreDot, a company from Israel, to share expertise on batteries for products like drones along with electric vehicles. This company is set to replace the lithium-ion components of the batteries and make more efficient and capable batteries for the products.

The Journey of Ola Electric-

The Ola Electric scooters are being manufactured in Tamil Nadu which started with an annual production of about 2 million products. It is expected to rise to about 10 million vehicles in the next few years. The plants are catered with more than 3,000 robots that are powered by Artificial Intelligence. These robots ensure that precise tasks are being handled along with the factory having an advanced paint shop division, a battery manufacturing department, and many more.

Ola plans to manufacture about 25,000 scooters every day and emerge as one of the top electric scooter manufacturers in the world. The factory of Ola empowers the women workforce and this is a concept that deserves heartfelt appreciation. The factory is also strategizing efforts to install solar panels on the roof to save electricity. The competitors of Ola Electric scooters are Bajaj Chetak, Ather 450X, and the TVS iQube.

There are some very simple steps to book an Ola Electric scooter and you just need to visit the company website first. Then the reserve tab will lead you to a nominal fee and will ask for your mobile number. After that, the captcha verification will be needed to complete and will be followed by an OTP. The reserve fee will ask for the type of payment that includes the net banking option, UPI along with Debit or Credit card.

Following these steps, the company website will provide the customers with a ‘congratulations’ note and will forward an order ID to the noted email address and mobile number with a message. Bhavish Aggarwal, the current CEO of Ola, studied for a Bachelor in Technology degree from the Indian Institute of Management in Bombay. Bhavish started his career as a research intern and an assistant at Microsoft before founding Ola.

Ola has already welcomed Wayne Burgess, a designer of the Jaguar production. Currently, Ola is also keeping the curtains drawn for a four-wheeler vehicle which the company is said to launch in the next 2 years or so. While the Ola Future Factory will be manufacturing two-wheelers, the company is aiming for an additional 1,000 acres of land to manufacture the four-wheeler.

The upcoming four-wheeler is said to be sporty in its design and ensures high-performance specifications. Ola Electric has managed to raise about $861.9 million so far in several funding rounds. Some of the prominent investors of Ola are Tata Sons Private Limited, Kia Motors, Tiger Global Management, Hyundai Motor Company, and others.

Further reports suggest that in 2022 Ola has also raised about $200 million from investors like Tekne Private Ventures, Alpine Opportunity Fund, and many others which increased the company’s valuation to about $5 billion.

In 2021, Ola Electric commenced booking electric scooters and the company recorded a sales figure of about Rs. 1,100 crores within 2 days. In April 2022, Ola Electric sold about 12,689 vehicles which is one of the companies with the highest-selling electric scooters today. In the year 2022, about 41,024 units were sold which is extremely remarkable for a new venture like Ola Electric.

The company has also been in the process of manufacturing its own batteries. Reports suggest that the factory has a capacity of about 50 gigawatt-hours and the expense of such a plant is about $ 1 billion. It is even noted that countries like Japan, Germany, Korea, and many others will be the suppliers for Ola Electric. The first in-house lithium-ion battery was manufactured on July 13 of 2022. It is expected that the company will commence mass production of the batteries in 2023.

Since technology holds a pivotal part in the Ola Electric scooters, the company has also rolled out the MoveOS firmware upgrade which provides features like Hill Hold Assist, Regen V2, Hyper Charging, Moods, and many others. The sale of Ola Electric scooters went live on September 15th, 2021 when it bagged about Rs. 600 crores on the first day.

The challenges faced by Ola Electric scooters were also worth mentioning. There have been several incidents when the scooter caught fire back in 2022. Along with this, the company also changed the payment system, where Ola suggested customers pay the full price of the vehicle beforehand. This action led to a decline in sales in spite of the fact that an Rs. 10,000 discount was given to the employees.

Ola Electric also faced serious objections from the customers as it seemed the company was keeping track of the data of the customers. But Ola has been dominant in its marketing campaign and has been sharing and promoting the products on every social media platform like Twitter, Instagram, and many more. The company is also eyeing to launch its electric car by 2024 and urges India to opt for a greener and more sustainable form of mobility. Considering the rise in fossil fuel prices and environmental impact, electric vehicles will definitely contribute towards healthy air and net zero habitats.