Ola S1 Electric Scooter Deliveries: Claims vs Reality

After several delays, Ola Electric finally started deliveries of its e-scooter, the Ola S1 range, on December 15, 2021. While several customers received the electric scooter, there are also quite a number who have been facing issues with the delivery. Here’s what’s happened so far:

What Ola Electric claims:

At the end of the month (December 2021), the company’s CEO Bhavish Aggarwal tweeted: “Update on December deliveries: we’ve dispatched vehicles to ALL who purchased. Some in transit, most already at delivery centres near you getting through RTO registration process. The registration process took longer than we anticipated as a fully digital process is new for all.”

He added: “But thanks to all RTOs working with us through holidays to scale up this new digital process. Lots of learnings for us on varied RTO systems, regulations across states. Will be faster with registration in future! Also, stay tuned for next purchase window, opening very soon!!”

Speaking to ZigWheels, Arun Sirdeshmukh, Chief Business Officer, Ola Electric, said, “The Ola S1 Pro is the best scooter on the market with the best design, best technology and the absolute best performance. We’ve shipped almost 4,000 scooters in Dec for customer deliveries across cities. Every Ola scooter is built to the highest quality standards to provide the best ownership experience in the category. Ownership feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and customers absolutely love the product, the doorstep delivery as well as the industry first ‘service at home’ experience which allows us to address and resolve any issue or query swiftly at their doorstep. Every customer is important to us and we have received overwhelmingly positive feedback. We have reimagined not only the product experience with our S1 but also the ownership experience with our industry first direct-to-customer approach, with every customer having a dedicated brand champion to ensure we are always close to our customer as we scale up our deliveries across the country”.

finally after a long wait i got delivery thanks to the @bhash @OlaElectric and delivery team @KhanXeeShan1994
go green 💚 go electric ⚡revolution Aurangabad Maharashtra pic.twitter.com/3jjFBGQG5K

— Yogesh Labde (@YogeshLabde3) January 4, 2022

Thank you ola Electric team, Speacally thanks to @RahulBi63042737, Satish Gangurde, Pratik Narwade from pune. Getting my delivery at night 3AM as per commitment. @bhash thanks for wonderful scooter..absolutely love it @OlaElectric
Speccaily Thanks,Himanshu Ratta and Vishal Thool pic.twitter.com/7sb20faoAn

— Sachin Kale (@sachinkale4950) January 3, 2022

Hyper-wati just like bagwati delivered. So happy with build quality and performance. Special thank you to Mr. Rohit Malviya who got involved personally to deliver scooter to me on time. @OlaElectric @bhash pic.twitter.com/zJSpif6wmt

— Venus Patel (@venuspatel20) January 5, 2022

Several customers from various states including Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana, Gujarat have tweeted that they have received their electric scooters. 

So what's the problem then?

While Ola Electric says it has shipped almost 4,000 scooters in December for deliveries across cities, according to the government’s Vahan portal, only 275 Ola electric scooters have been registered till date, at the time of writing this article. The portal has registration data of all the states except for Telangana, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. 

Moreover, many customers have replied to the CEO’s tweet asking why their e-scooters aren’t ready yet even though the promised delivery date was 31 December 2021:

Honestly, what the point of lying? My vehicle isnot even ready as per your app. Why not just say, we tried best, almost finished, failed some people, will deliver remaining as early as possible etc. Saying we dispatched all not right when app says getting ready@OlaElectric #pune pic.twitter.com/qPpzpa9kmf

— Amit (@amit123) December 31, 2021

Same here pic.twitter.com/K62B6YJZIu

— RJ Kaaka (@dwanikaaka) December 31, 2021

@OlaElectric @bhash If ALL vehicles are dispatched then why app/website showing the status like "Getting your scooter ready"??

Is it an app/website bug? Please let us know the exact status of our vehicle. pic.twitter.com/g65XAMAbIQ

— Chintan Bhatt (@iamchintanbhatt) December 31, 2021

A few users have tweeted that the deliveries for the silver colour variant have been delayed. 

Absolutely not ALL. Still making fools of people's patience with these marketing gimmicks. pic.twitter.com/V36Gt7RBYX

— sandy (@sndyrulez) December 31, 2021

Dude. Seems like your team is taking you for a ride. Got a mail from @OlaElectric that liquid silver is behind schedule for December delivery and delivery date is now Jan 10th. pic.twitter.com/u03g9STwxE

— TSB (@TheBalaSub) December 31, 2021

According to a recent tweet by Vinkesh Gulati, president of Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA), only 111 Ola e-scooters have been delivered as on December 31, 2021. This also excludes the three aforementioned non-Vahan states.

With a claim of 10Mn capacity, @OlaElectric sells mere 111 vehicles in Dec.

Is Direct to Customer concept posing a big hindrance?

Is it for real or just another media/startup hype company? pic.twitter.com/Y2e0O9QyiN

— Vinkesh Gulati (@VinkeshGulati) December 31, 2021

Moreover, it was recently reported that those who received the e-scooters in the first lot did not have all the advertised features from the get go. Now, Ola plans to open the next purchase window later this month. We hope the pending deliveries are completed quickly and the deliveries for the next window goes smoothly.

A direct-to-customer delivery model could be challenging considering the vastness of our country. Centralising the post-delivery process also puts a major strain on both the manufacturer and the local RTO. The company announced last month that it is setting up its fast charging network across the country and will be live in the next 6-odd weeks. Best bit is that the Ola Hypercharger network will be free for customers till June 2022.