Ola’s ‘Technical Difficulties’ Causes Delay In S1 Electric Scooter Sale By A Week To 15 September

Ola Electric has pushed back the sale of the most awaited S1 electric scooter by a week, until 15 September, 8am, citing "technical difficulties" in getting the website up and running for consumers on 8 September.

The Ola S1 electric scooter was launched in August in two varieties—S1 and S1 Pro—with prices starting at 999,999 and 129,999, respectively (ex-showroom including FAME II subsidy and excluding state subsidies).

On 7 September, Ola Electric announced that it would begin selling its electric Ola S1 scooters on World EV Day, 8 September from 6pm and the deliveries would begin from October. The company also noted that the equated monthly instalments (EMIs) for S1 scooters would begin at Rs 2,999 per month, while the EMIs for the Ola S1 Pro would start at Rs 3,199.

But on 8 September, the company found itself in an unprecedented situation and Ola Chairman and Group CEO Bhavish Aggarwal took it to Twitter and shared his statement. He said that the purchase process has been postponed by a week and will begin on 15 September.

Aggarwal's statement reads: "We had committed to start purchases today for our Ola S1 scooter. But unfortunately we have had many technical difficulties in making our website for purchases live today. I want to apologise to all of you, who had to wait for several hours. The website was just not up to our expectations on quality. I know we have disappointed you and I sincerely apologise to each of you for what was clearly a very frustrating experience."

In the statement, the CEO also noted that the company has created a complete digital buying journey, which includes a fully digital loan process with no documentation. It also added that "we wanted to provide this first of its kind digital purchase journey and today we haven't been able to. Getting you the right experience will take us another week."

Aggarwal also confirmed that the customers' reservation and position in the purchase queue will remain unchanged, meaning "if you reserved first, you will be able to buy it first". Additionally, he assured potential customers that there will be no change in vehicle delivery dates.

Pre-launch bookings for Ola Electric's electric scooters began in July this year—before the official launch on 15 August—for Rs 499, and the company received 1 lakh orders in just 24 hours. The company, however, has not stated how many orders it has received thus far.

According to the company, in the first phase, it will start with a 10 lakh annual production capacity and subsequently expand up to a 20 lakh capacity based on market demand. Ola Electric said that once completed, its plant will have an annual capacity of 1 crore units, which is "15 per cent of the world's total two-wheeler production".

The company stated that it will provide test rides starting in October. Orders can be cancelled after test rides if the scooters have not been dispatched for delivery from the Ola factory.

Ola S1 is available in 10 colours in satin, matte and glossy finishes and features iconic twin headlamps, an ergonomic and fluidic body, superior alloy wheels, sculpted seating, and the largest boot space that fits two helmets. In terms of performance, the vehicle has a range of 181 kilometres, an acceleration of 0 to 40 kmph in 3.0 seconds, and a top speed of 115 kmph.

According to Ola Electrics, the scooter has a 3.97kWh of battery capacity, more than 30 per cent higher than the next closest electric vehicle and the most powerful motor in the category with 8.5 KW of peak power.