While almost everyone driving a vehicle understands the need of switching to a zero-emission vehicle. Rising fuel prices and ever-increasing pollution has forced everyone to look for feasible options. Talking about two-wheelers specifically, we’ve had players like Ather, Bajaj etc that have created the required awareness and while these scooters tick almost every box but with the pricing, they are the proverbial sour-grapes, especially for the cash-starved Indian middle class.
Ola, which has been in the news for its upcoming electric scooter, had recently started to accept pre-booking the scooter for just Rs 500. Thanks to the hype created around the scooter itself, Ola was able to manage over 100,000 bookings within 24 hours. That is Rs 50,000,000 - way more than what an average startup with a promising future can raise.
According to a report by Business Standard, Ola’s e-scooter could cost somewhere in between Rs 85,000 to Rs 110,000 on road. This is the exact range wherein most petrol-powered two-wheelers are priced, hence Ola is looking to target these users who are looking to switch to a green vehicle. Ola plans to home-deliver these scooters when ready as the company is still building its dealer network in the country.
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Ola’s Head of Marketing Varun Dubey told the publication, “We are addressing the entire two-wheeler market in the country — which is around 21 million per annum. We see no reason why customers will not shift to electric. The bulk of the ICE scooter market in India is between ~85,000 and ~1.1 lakh on road, and that is where we will position our range of electric scooters.”
The Indian two-wheeler market is currently at 21 million vehicles and Ola has an ambitious plan of gaining at least 50% market share. Additionally, Ola plans to also launch the scooter in international markets like Southeast Asia and Europe.
Ola is confident about being able to achieve both the targets comfortably, thanks to its FutureFactory which will be the world’s biggest two-wheeler factory once ready.
Ola Electric scooter: What we know
The exact details of the scooter have been kept under the wraps, however, the company has revealed its design, which is similar to the Etrego App Scooter.
A recent mandatory listing suggests that the Ola e-scooter could come in a couple of variants. The series of scooters could be called an S series comprising scooters – S1 and S1 Pro, wherein the S1 is expected to be the base variant while the S1 Pro could be the fully-loaded top-end variant.
The company claims that the scooter will be able to run 150 kilometres in a single charge at a maximum speed of 100 kilometres an hour. Additionally, the scooter is expected to come in multiple colour options including – Black, Grey, Blue. Though there are chances that it could also be available in silver, gold, pink as well as pastel colours like red, yellow and blue.
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