The maps data seems to be sourced from MapMyIndia even though the lady said it’s Google maps. The logo is visible on the bottom left.
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Maybe 10-12 days I’m assuming
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Horizontal suspension is good on the race track cars for F1 race use these kinds of suspension where the curvature of the road matters the most left to right and holds good in turns. For India, Vertical suspension is the best option because of these Potholes and improper roads.
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Ola CEO Bhavish Agarwal confirmed on Twitter that Ola is working on an electric bike and affordable scooter and they are coming next year. Not sure which one will be coming first if it’s a bike or scooter.
Source:
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Buddy lets wait for long term review … P.S I want any indian company to succeed
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I love when people get offended on silly things Ather might not have enough share, MY THOUGHTS are purely on the post you have in the past 6 months, let us keep that aside If I wanted to troll you, @blackworks would know 
, BTW what’s up with your language forgot the word and how to put them together.
OEM manufacture has to build from the ground up not buy the company and rename it, The original cost of Etergo is 3599 pounds which is roughly 3.94 lacs in Indian money now think how much cost cut did their company do to put such a low price.
My conclusion is on a scientific basis on some random mombo jumbo, the suspension will be a problem on OLA, especially on potted road areas, But still, you can buy that and no one is stopping you.
Ather has a good share in EV now, get your facts straight, while OLA has None as if of today, But as you say real competition is someone else means that you have compared it with ICE scooters that’s okay India is still lacks the infrastructure and Education on Using a proper EV. and old sentimental thoughts
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Took a test ride of the Ola S1Pro Yesterday and here is my experience
What I liked about the scooter:
- The looks - It just Looks like EVA from the movie Wall-E and that’s why i had chosen white colour only during the advance payment too
- The range-It should satisfy a lot of people…those who want to charge weekly once, those who ride a lot within the city or if you have some sudden plan changes.
- Rear suspension - Many people were wary of the horizontal shock absorbers. I knew it shouldn’t hamper the performance greatly and it lived up to my expectations from a city scooter. Overall a good ride quality
- The seat height - I’m 5’7" but my 5’ wife also found it really comfortable for her height.
- Colour options-I saw the Matte Grey, Gloss black, Gloss white, Gloss red, some kind of light blue… I liked the red, white and matte grey
- Touchscreen dashboard - It was just smooth (hope it stays that way)
- To a certain extent Hyper mode - It has wonderful power but felt there was jerk/lag too
What I didn’t like about the scooter:
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Plastics - The first thing I didn’t like about this is the plastic material. It felt like the one used in the water filter at office. Not sure if this is because we have a Vespa and Ather 450 at home but I expected better quality plastics. It felt like it was from a much cheaper vehicle.
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Poor build quality - We are the final customers and I expected a much ready vehicle. It was more of a pre-production vehicle. Panel gaps were inconsistent, The USB port had a big hole, the USB port covering flap was so flimsy that it came off when I tried to open it,
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Buttons! - Switchgear is not really switches but buttons which felt like that on some cheap toy.
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No Regen! - The executive told that there is no regen and neither did I find it. He explained that instead of regen there is a feature where if we even if we touch the brakes, the throttle will be completely cut off thereby saving energy.
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Energy saving feature - The above explained feature is the one thing I just didn’t like…it is dangerous also I felt. In city we encounter lot of situations where we have to hold the brake a bit and accelerate a bit. but even a small touch of the brake lever, the throttle is DEAD! white taking U-turn, while inching slowly with the traffic, this is tough and sometimes dangerous.
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Missing features - Bluetooth, cruise control, hill hold, voice activated controls, geo fencing, tamper alert, widgets, mood themes nothing was available on the test ride vehicle. The test rides were really hurried I felt
Booking and Test ride experience
When I got the email on No10th for scheduling a test ride, The test rides started from November 12th. For a Friday, I unusually had lot of meetings and calls at office. And I had lot of personal appointments over the weekend. So I booked the last slot on Friday at 19:00. Although this would mean that I couldn’t take nice photos in daylight, I would give me an opportunity to test the headlights which I was wary about. I had office calls at attend till 18:00 and then another at 20:00. So I took my wife along so that after the test ride, I could attend my call from the car while she drives.
I left home at 18:00 sharp but due to rain and traffic jams, I took more time than usual and reached at 19:10. It was in a big co-working space building with good parking space. I drove in only to be stopped by the parking attendant who said that parking is not allowed for Ola event attendees! he asked me to park in the adjacent supermarket. Unhappy, I took my car out and parked it on the kerb side behind many other parked vehicles. Here Ola executives came and told that I can’t park as it is reserved for test ride. I told them that it was public place and they can’t block it like that especially when it is for their own event! Anyway I parked it in the next building with a supermarket.
I entered inside and they confirmed the order details and checked if I had test ride slot booked. Since we are planning to buy this for my father, I had entered my father’s name. When they asked for my license, They can’t accept as there is a mismatch! Even after seeing my father’s name in my license they were hesitant. In fact I wanted to take my father along because he will be the end user but he was held up with some other work that day and he asked me to take a final call. Finally after 5 minutes of discussion they agreed.
We were then allotted for a demo in a batch on one of the two scooters and asked to wait till the previous batch finishes theirs. During this time a PR guy came to me seeing the TBHP Tshirt I was wearing. He asked me if I was from the editorial team and If I’ll write a review. I told I’m not from the editorial team but I’ll be writing a review for sure! He asked me not to write till 15th as there is an Embargo! I was really surprised by this and I said I’ll need some time anyway to compile the review. later during the test ride also I was told that I can’t take pictures…I was like Seriously! I totally can’t understand level of confidentiality when they’re giving a test ride to an end customer!! That was when I decided to write this review before 15th! I wonder what would’ve happened If I had worn an Ather T shirt! 
Overall, the event management could’ve been a lot better!
The Demo
There were 2 demo scooters-One Jet Gloss Black and a Matte Grey. Since mine was the last batch, we were around 5 people per scooter for a demo. Previous one had like 10 people per scooter! The executive started with the gloss black but we immediately hit a roadblock in the form of a Software glitch. The vehicle dashboard was frozen! even a reset didn’t help. They got a new one after that. This was a message that in general, we have to prepare ourselves for such experiences with future vehicles. This is one of the negatives of having software in everything we use including vehicles!
One by one the executive explained all the features of the vehicle.
The Looks
The headlight is the striking features and makes it stand out in the crowd, The border is a AOH DRL and at the centre are two projector LED lamps - one for the low bean and another for high beam. The front indicators is further down on the body. The mono front shock is also another unique feature. It looks different.
From the videos and pictures I felt that the scooter was leaning too much on it’s side stand like Ather but in actual it was not as much. But leans more than Activa for example.
The tyres are 110/70-12 in size and the demo vehicles had MRF Zapper tyres. They come with Disc brakes at both Front and the rear
The seat is wide and comfortable and at the rear end has split grabrails. The seat could’ve been longer I felt. The under seat storage is huge and has a flat bottom. Etergo had designed it for a crate of beer cans and it is exactly in that shape. It is rectangular but it could’ve been deeper I felt. Two half-face helmets can fit but Ola intelligently have taken helmet with less height. I feel a taller half face helmet might not fit. Full face helmet may not fit at all.
The side stand and rear footrest sits flush with the body. Both open without any thud but i felt the side stand could’ve been beefier and stronger. But if it does its function its good enough. Both the rear footrests have ridges for good grip. There is no centre stand or saree side step but the executive told that these will be available as an accessory along with an all-round body protection guard.
At the rear centre is the charge flap with S1Pro written on it.it is push lock/unlock type. This cover really felt flimsy. Inside the port is covered with another rubber cap for better Ingress Protection. The charger itself is portable and not a fast charger. For the home charger they just provide a stand for this. Intelligent design but not really safe. The plug for the scooter is Ola specific and not standard.
The tail lamp and indicator are low down on the body in a single housing.
Overall it is a retro-modern looking scooter and I loved it. It always reminds me of the EVA robot from Wall-E movie. Overall it has nice proportions and nice free flowing curves. It design restraint is completely European. Thankfully it was Etergo who designed it in the beginning.
The gloss piano black looked good but is a royal pain to maintain. It is one big Finger-print and swirl-mark magnet. The other matte Grey looked nice.
Moving on to the switch gear or button gear, there are 5 buttons on each side. The left has a light button, cruise control/reverse, left indicator, right indicator, and a big horn button. The right side has mode change, power, volume plus, volume minus and a big play/pause. The buttons are made of rubber and looked cheap.
The light button toggles between light off, low beam and high beam
I was told that the cruise control works after 25kmph but not available in the demo scooters. When the scooter is idle, the same button works for reverse. We have to remove side stand, hold brake and then press this button to activate the reverse mode. then turning the throttle forward(in the opposite direction) will move the vehicle in reverse. He told that the max speed is limited to 2kmph. When R mode is activated, the vehicle doesn’t move forward at all. it would’ve been better in reverse mode is if the throttle is twisted normally it should have moved in the forward direction too at 2kmph. because while taking a vehicle out of tight spots you have to do forward and reverse movements a couple of times. One another thing…Having used Reverse or Park assist mode in Ather, this turning throttle in opposite direction didn’t feel intuitive as the mind is not trained for this. May be it is a getting-used-to thing and non-Ather users may train their mind faster.
Then the indicator buttons. one thing is if you’ve turned on the right indicator, you’ve to press the same button again to turn off. if you press the left one, it will turn on left indicator. There is no Auto-off option. I personally feel that the normal indicator switch that we find on all scooters is still the best
Then the horn button. it is sufficiently loud
Coming to the right side handlebar, the power button turns on the scooter only if the side stand is removed and one brake is depressed. The scooter starts in Normal mode.
Warning messages
The mode change button changes modes and is then shown on the display and also a audio feedback is provided.
Then there are volume plus, volume minus, and play pause buttons to control music when connected via Bluetooth. This was unavailable.
I got to sat on the scooter after this and It’s sufficiently low seating. My 5’ wife loved this height and it was comfortable for me too 5’7" My father who’s 5’11" may find it too low but nothing that is a deal breaker. The good thing is the seat is almost flat. Ather’s seat is angled and this is one of the reasons why it gets uncomfortable after some distance. Ola S1 seat is a little too wide at the rear and shorter pillion riders may not like it. Saree clad women sitting one side will appreciate this however provided a side step is provided as told by the demo executive.
Just behind the front body panel on the inside is a luggage hook at the centre. This is fixed hook and should’ve been a retractable type. no premium feel to it whatsoever. on the left side is a cubby hole to keep small items. on the right side also there is a cubby hole but it also has a USB port here so that we can charge our phones on the move. On the demo scooter there was a big hole here and on the test ride scooter there was a USB port with a flimsy cover which came off when i tried to open it.
One highlight here is that there is not key slot or a start stop button. When the registered mobile comes close, it can be started. However I do not know what happens in case our phone runs out of charge. The mirrors are simple and offer decent rear view
Dashboard The touchscreen dash board is a huge 7 inch screen. the huge barder makes it appear even bigger when the vehicle is off. There are 5 sections split into 3 screens. The Home screen, The Navigation and Music screen and finally the Settings and Info screen.
Home screen
It has a big circle at the centre which shows the mode when stationery (P R N S H) and shows the speed when moving. On the right side, it has another smaller circle which is the trip meter with the odo reading shown as text below it which says “xxx km all time”. On the left side is the bluetooth device details. At the bottom of the screen there is a status bar. At the centre of the status bar is a button to open the under seat storage space. There should’ve been a physical button to open this I felt because if the screen freezes for whatever reason, it will become impossible to open the boot.
On the left side of this button there are telltales like battery status and remaining range and light on and high beam. on the right side again there are tell tales for side stand, bluetooth, signal strength and a digital clock The boot open button on the status bar is only on the homescreen while the other tell tales are present on all the 3 screens.
Navigation and Music screen
The left half of the screen is for navigation with a search bar and a list of recent locations. tapping on the search bar gives a keypad and then it moves onto the map view where it shows the directions and from there we can start the navigation
I couldn’t see the music section as phone pairing was not possible yet.
Setting and Info screen
The left half is the setting screen with a list of recent settings. here we can adjust display brightness at the top. then there are Sound settings, Display settings, Bluetooth setting and All settings. Tapping on any of these takes us into a next screen with Bluetooth, Display, Sounds, About and System update tabs on the left and the settings on the right Bluetooth had only option to switch on and off for now Display had light and dark theme buttons and brightness adjustment Sound had only volume control bar for the music playback About showed vehicle name, model, odo, purchase date, software version, bluetooth address and wifi Address System update shown OTA details if any.
Overall the dashboard was quite fluid and smooth and the pick zoom was also smooth and fast like any mid range smart phone. However, we really have to see it’s performance when all features are loaded.rhe current software is beta and half of the features are still missing. But even then the 1.8ghz processor with 3GB RAM should be good enough. Lots of features still have to be enabled but i guess the poor software engineers at Ola would be burning the midnight oil.
Test Ride
After this demo, WE finally got our hands on the test ride vehicle. As has been from the past 1 week, it was raining albeit not heavily. I got a red S1pro and the executive gave some final instructions.
He told to ride in normal mode only as the pickup is too much to handle! When I told I have an EV scooter already he told “Ok sir, try it if you are used to it but start in max sports mode and not hyper mode”. I agreed. He once again told about the Energy saving feature and be focused on it. Immediately this was difficult for me and even a small tap on the brake kills the throttle. Starting slowly was a challenge.
Soon after starting I switched to Hyper mode and the pull is really strong I couldn’t really go to higher speeds due to traffic but my focus was not really on the speed. The pull is strong and addictive. Later I had to take a U turn and had to slow down. The brakes kill the throttle and the scooter kind of cruises for sometime before I could feel the brake bite. It can get scary in emergency braking situations.
Again, taking a slow U turn with brake and throttle input was really difficult. also now that the vehicle was in Hyper mode, the acceleration was sudden and kind of jerky. It was more of a hub motor like feel and didn’t feel like a belt driven vehicle. it doesn’t feel like this in Sports or normal. Starting from from zero is better in Sports or Normal mode IMO.
The vehicle is way more silient than Ather. I feel that this is because the belt drive is covered. Ather’s sound is loud mostly due to resonance and because of this cover, Ola S1 is silent. I test rode in a very noisy road so could not really imagine how it would sound in a silent environment.
I then rode on some potholes and I really liked the rear suspension in how it handles rough roads. It’s on the firmer side but is good for Bengaluru roads. However the front suspension being a monoshock was strictly average. While riding, I observes that the footboard is a little too high in the sense that the distance between the seat and floorboard is less. This means that it is not good for long distances. But yeah it is a city vehicle. The seat should’ve been a tad higher.
Then I came to a signal where the road is at a higher gradient. The energy saving came to haunt me again. There is no hill-hold as yet and every time I tap the brake ever so slightly, The scooter goes dead! And the acceleration after i release the brake has some lag. Due to this it was dangerously going back close to an autorickshaw behind me who honked some time when this was happening. Hill hold might solve this to a certain extent, but I still hope This feature can be switched off somehow! I returned back and it was 20:00 by this time. I jumped on to my office call while my wife took the scooter for a test ride.
In a video that I had watched some time ago, the Ola had a strange beam pattern almost like a spot. But in the road that I saw, it wasn’t as pronounced like that. It had a decent spread. Although it was nothing to write home about, it was acceptable compared to the competition.
After around 10 mins she returned back and soon, we were on our way home. After my call was over, I asked my wife how it was and this energy saving feature is what she said was different. She told she liked the Ather more than this. Another thing she mentioned was that a normal push to cancel indicator switch is better. She didn’t try hyper mode.
My impressions were also similar. It didn’t wow us but is is not bad. The USP for S1 would be the range. I would definitely pick this over the Chetak but Ather’s ride quality is definitely better. If range is not a concern, Ather is still better. That said, the primary user is my father and for his usage, this is more than enough. For any person who wants to shift to EV, this is a good option to consider. I feel this is an introductory pricing from Ola and before the price hike, people can buy this. There are risks like the software is being incomplete but it is something that can be ironed out before deliveries. Service is unknown but at this scale and their purse, I think Ola will manage this.
Both my wife and I agreed that there is no major deal breakers especially considering the primary user and his usage pattern. Came back home and told this to my father and he told whatever I decide, he’s ok with it. If he doesn’t feel the pinch of petrol filling, he’ll be happy.
At around 23:00 in the night I also got a payment link for the balance amount payment. we all slept over it and today morning after another round of discussion, I made the balance payment. The delivery timeline given to me is before Nov 30. I’m ok even if it gets extended (which I’m sure will happen). It will be a porcelain white. The insurance was the only thing above the scooter cost of ₹99,000. Insurance is expensive by around ₹2000 but there was no option given to remove it which is really bad from Ola. Before making the payment I did think about the 450+ but I decided against it as it didn’t make financial sense considering the primary user.
Anyway, The EV market is sure heating up and pretty soon there will be no ICE two wheeler in our home. We had 2 Vespas at a time and soon we will have two EVs.
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Amazing review! 
I don’t think I need to watch/read anything more other than riding the Scooter myself ( whenever I get to). I WILL go for the test ride on my Ather as PROUD OWNER. I plan to go with the Ather Indore team.
Would have worn Ather t-shirt if I had one. 
It’ll be a great PR thing for Ola but who cares.
Also, I’d definitely like to know what people in the Ather team think about their test ride experience. Though I’m curious how would Tarun and others experience it. Public test ride would gather lots of attention. Maybe wait for someone to buy and test ride theirs ( @hemanth.anand ) or get one for internal testing. 
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A very well written review, as usual @hemanth.anand . I guess the scooter is aimed for new comers to the EV sector, not enough of an improvement to switch from Ather. The only selling point for an Ather owner I see is range. And that too looks like it could get cancelled out by the truckload of missing features and their energy saving 'innovation’
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Brilliant review. Ather is definitely a good product. The only thing that puts it down is it’s software and the dinosaur age slow dash.
I never liked the looks of OLA but only the Hyper mode and top speed is what grabbed my attention. I still have hopes that @tarun and team are working on improving our experience.
My friend who once owned the 450x is after me to sell off my S1 but i am still double minded. Though I have already put a post in the buy n sell group, but I am still hoping to that in the coming days Ather will share some news I wanting to hear. Top speed matters alot to me more than anything else.
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I plan to do the same! Unfortunately, even after a series of emails, I still have not received an invite link. So, anyway, I will go over there today and at least ask them about this. I think that as I booked scooter on 17th, they will send an invite later on… Let’s see. 
One question to @hemanth.anand Was the navigation not available for use during your test-ride? If it was available, how did it work?
Sorry if I missed that point while reading! 
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Nice in-depth review. Kind of got TeamBHP official review feel 
I am looking to buy Ola for my father as well, he is not comfortable with my Ather seat height. Looks like Ola has a lower seat height for the rider. I will wait a bit for buying it though. I don’t want to go through their software stabilization phase.
I can see Map My India icon on the lower left corner of the screen. So it doesn’t seem to be Google Maps. Many vlogs that I saw mentioned it as being Google maps. How did the maps perform?
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I hate this about other Ev’s and hampers the ride quality, sole reason i chose Ather. My dad has the optima hx which does this and sometimes its beyond annoying when the power is totally cut.
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Beautifully done! Extremely elaborate and an insightful review, answers almost all the questions very clearly. Thank you @hemanth.anand 
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@abhishek.balaji @tarun @swapniljain
Is there a way that you could increase our km capacity like OLA?
If not then is there a buyback sessions organised?
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So Bhavish realised that his first stuff is not affordable……
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Def. affordable. s1 on road in maharashtra is less than 90k , that less than ICE scooters.
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Well, the actual article says lower-cost scooter. Zigwheeles article mentioned it as a “more affordable” scooter.
Ola S1 is actually much cheaper than the EV competition (Ather 450x and Bajaj Chetak, etc…). TVS iQube is the closest in price but it has a smaller battery, lower range, hub motor, no software features and also you need to buy the charger separately which costs Rs 11,238.
125CC petrol scooters cost around Rs 1 lakh, but there is a huge market for Activas and Jupiters which cost less than Rs 90,000 on road.
I don’t think Ola will be able to sell millions of vehicles per year if they don’t bring cheaper options and bikes. They have enough funds and investors to go for larger volumes. Higher volumes will bring down the costs rapidly.
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then the burnouts shown in the promos wouldn’t be the final product 
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It won’t be mine officially, So Ather may have to ask my father 
But Internal testing…I’m sure all the companies will have their competitor products with them for benchmarking
Thanks @arvind_nair. You are right, There definitely no real improvement to sell your Ather and get this. But for a new EV buyer, this is surely an option especially with the current introductory pricing.
I’m not sure why you would want to sell your Ather and buy an Ola. Also keep in mind that you will not get the 45k subsidy for the Ola (Unless you have used some other Aadhar card for your Ather or you want to register the Ola in another person’s name). Top speed may be an important thing for you, But is it worth spending some ₹25k for 25kmph additional top speed…is a call you’ve to take.
Sorry I missed that during my ride. I wish I could spend more time with the scooter.
Don’t say that then Ola will say I broke the embargo 
TBHP official test ride report should be out today so you can compare
I couldn’t test the navigation. Maybe the final scooters will have Google maps. Let’s see. There are lot of questions unanswered and lot of features missed.
True. I hope we can turn this feature off
Oh yeah that skipped my mind completely. Nice catch! 
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