I have a friend who works at the place where ola’s having their PCBs manufactured, apparently, they have been running at capacity for a few weeks now.
That’s good to hear. Ola is planning to deliver many more than the initial December batch deliveries (4000) in the next few months. Hope they have secured all the parts required from the suppliers.
I am actually surprised that Ola was able to secure a huge number of chips in times of shortage. Most likely they might have placed orders for this sometime before the shortages started to occur.
I was shocked too, especially when the whole world is reeling under a shortage.
Also, I’m sorry, I am going to have to clarify on this. Apparently the plant is running at full capacity. (they also make O2 concentrators and other medical equipment) Ola’s line is still slow. They’re getting shipments in batches of 300 - 400 boards at a time and a large order of 1L boards is on hold. They are also waiting on important modules to be delivered.
But I don’t know how much they have already finished making, so this might be a possibility
Unfortunately, IMO ola and Ather have ruined the experience of buying a smart EV for people. They compromised on the experience for time it takes to be in the market. It’s good for the company to launch ASAP and release features on a later date but when more than one company does it in this market, it becomes sort of like a norm. @rajkumar.mishra2010 is right in some of his statements where he says the broken software implementation ruins the whole experience. This could potentially ruin the entire EV shift in India for smart scooters, people would rather get a normal EV with no smart features than have to deal with broken stuff for months on end or rather just get an ICE and deal with the things they know about. The whole optics gets skewed.
They initially planned to force the upgrade but then it backlashed, so now they are back to giving the S1 pro which is locked in software as normal S1.
But why will customers want to buy a locked S1 pro which has only extra weight. I don’t suppose that they can choose to upgrade at a later date. Doesn’t make sense
Why not? The extra battery buffer means the degradation will be much lower than regular S1. If someone wants to unlock the bigger battery capacity along with software features they can pay Rs 30,000 and unlock any time.
It’s for those who are early adopters (Dec, Jan and Feb deliveries). They have already given this to Dec deliveries as they already paid the full amount (Rs 1 lakh) in November. For the Jan and Feb batches who paid (Rs 20,499) they asked to upgrade to pro but after backlash, they are now doing the same as the Dec batch.
Oh , if they can upgrade at a later date then it’s fine, I thought this upgrade option is only for a limited time
They will let the customers upgrade anytime because they have already given the hardware. Why would they lose on a substantial amount of Rs 30,000?
For those who just prebooked with Rs 499, I don’t think Ola gives this option as they are not planning to produce S1 anytime soon. They will most likely ask them to upgrade to Pro variant or wait for late 2022.
I’m eager to see how Ola Invoices this. If anyone from the December batch who already has got an S1 but with S1 Pro hardware can share the pricing in their invoice details, it will be good. I’m interested because…
When S1 is given with S1 pro hardware, the invoice should show ₹163549-₹59550=₹103999 for the scooter. If they give S1 Pro hardware and invoice as per S1 prices like they had announced, it is nothing but providing false information to the Government authorities which might land Ola in trouble.
They cannot have same battery pack but different prices. This is why Ather also invoices 450x and 450Plus like below…
waive off the ₹17K for the performance upgrade and ask S1 customers to pay ₹13k more or wait for an year. This may not go down well with the S1 customers because they would end up paying 13K now and later ₹30K if they wish to upgrade.
waive off ₹17K and the ₹9k of the charger too and ask S1 customers to pay ₹4k more. Most of the S1 customers might not mind this deal, but this may not go down well with the S1pro customers as they are being charged ₹9k for the charger
waive of ₹17K and ₹9k and another ₹4k as discount so that S1 customers will not have to pay anything more than the ₹99,999 that they have paid. This will surely anger the s1 pro customers as they would be paying ₹30k more than S1 customers for a performance upgrade that is worth only ₹17k.
They may also waive off ₹9k for S1 pro customers in Jan Feb batch as well.
I think all S1 which has S1 pro hardware ola will claim all subsidy for installed capacity as in future if any user upgrades then difference in subsidy should not be a loss to ola, so the extra discount received as subsidy will be billed under some name or base price adjusted to get same amount. So from customer point of view he pays only for S1 on road amount irrespective of billing and breakups. In later date if the customer requires to upgrade then 30k will be billed as service.
We have to see what happens to registration will ola register it as S1 or S1 pro and what happens when a user choose to upgrade and later will RC gets updated or is it possible or not, if they register all S1 with S1 pro hardware as S1 pro then in case of resale by owner buyer has to check if its really s1 pro or s1
Ola can’t bill for S1 pro and put the balance 30k as receivable because its not compulsory upgrade few owners may not upgrade forever
Also we have to see if ola will bear the GST rate difference or pass it on to customers because for 30k in future 18% GST as its a service. But for S1 pro its included in vehicle cost which has lower rate
Ola Electric is now valued more than TVS motors. In the latest funding round, Ola Electric has raised $200 million (Rs 1,490 crores) valuing the electric vehicle maker at $5 billion (Rs 37,293 crores). TVS motors currently has a market cap of Rs 29,507 crores.
