Ola S1 Air deliveries on track, says Ola Electric, as bookings cross 50,000 mark
Ola Electric is on track to begin deliveries for the newly-launched S1 Air electric scooter, a senior company official confirmed in a recent conversation with HT Auto. Anshul Khandelwal, Chief Marketing Officer - Ola Electric, said that the company’s production capacity has been expanded in such a manner that “it can take as much demand as possible." Khandelwal was speaking with context to over 50,000 bookings for the Ola S1 Air garnered in a span of just five days.
Ola Electric opened the purchase window for the S1 Air on July 27 and the company’s most affordable electric two-wheeler has received an overwhelming response. The S1 Air is one of the more accessible premium electric scooters in the market. Ola fast-tracked the purchase window of the S1 Air to July 27 for community members, receiving over 3,000 bookings in just hours. The strong demand prompted the two-wheeler giant to extend the introductory price by 15 days to keep the booking momentum going.
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Speaking about meeting delivery timelines despite the strong demand, Anshul Khandelwal said, “It will take some time for the product to come on the road as we ramp up our production, but that is very limited. Our overall production capacity has been expanded to 2 million units a year. So that could very comfortably cover all the products that we're going to launch in the next few months. Whether it is S1 Air, whether it is S1 Pro or any new product that we launch in the near future. The expansion is done in a manner that till the end of this year we should be able to, it should be able to really take as much demand as possible."
At the time of opening the purchase window, Bhavish Aggarwal, co-founder and CEO - Ola Electric, said that the S1 Air deliveries will begin by early August. The electric scooter is already making it to the brand’s nearly 1,000 experience centres pan India for test rides and display. The company now anticipates a major chunk of its volumes to come from the S1 Air.
Khandelwal explained, “There is no product at this quality and this price in the market right now, it directly actually competes with all the ICE products. And with this, we believe that it absolutely doesn't make sense to buy any ICE product right now. If you can save ₹20,000 a year minimum at 20 km a day with S1 Air and the kind of specs and the product it is, it makes absolutely no sense for people now to not buy EVs. So from that perspective, it was a very, very important launch for us because it is the true driver of adoption and penetration of EVs for us and for the industry and [we are] extremely glad about how the reception has been."
Ola Electric’s portfolio now comprises only two offerings - S1 Air and S1 Pro. The standard Ola S1 was discontinued with the S1 Air’s arrival. While the company did not share a break-up of sales numbers for the S1 particularly, Khandelwal mentioned it was part of the plan to discontinue the S1 with the arrival of the S1 Air. Moreover, there are more products joining the lineup soon, which meant a portfolio reshuffle was imminent.
The Ola S1 Air arrives with a 3 kWh battery pack paired with a hub motor as opposed to a mid-drive motor on the S1 Pro. The e-motor develops the same 8.5 kW (11 bhp) and can sprint from 0-40 kmph in 3.3 seconds. The top speed is rated at 90 kmph with a claimed range of 125 km. The S1 Air misses out on some of the fancier bits including fast charging but takes up to 5 hours to fully charge, according to the company. Other features include drum brakes at either end, a 7-inch TFT screen with Bluetooth connectivity, three riding modes - Eco, Normal and Sport, and a new Neon paint scheme.
On the sales front, Ola maintained its position as a market leader with a near-40 per cent share in July. The company sold close to 19,000 units last month achieving a 375 per cent growth in year-on-year sales. The numbers are set to grow further with the arrival of the S1 Air. The company has sold over three lakh electric scooters since it began operations in late 2021.
