Ola Electric founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal on Saturday announced entry into the mass market two-wheeler segment with S1 Air that comes with a 4.5 km hub motor, 2.5kwh battery pack, and a top speed of 85 kmph that gives a range of 100 km range in the eco mode. Launched at Rs 84,999, the purchase window for the new model will open in February while the deliveries will begin in April 2023.
Aggarwal said that Ola Electric garners 50 per cent of the premium scooter market (scooters priced above Rs 1 lakh) in the country. “Already in the scooter market EV penetration is 15 per cent and in many big cities like Bangalore, Delhi, Pune, etc., EV scooter penetration is above 40 per cent. That means above half of all new scooters sold in these cities are already electric. Our mission of ensuring all scooters in India are electric by 2025 is within our sight,” he said.
Ola Electric currently has two products, S1 and S1 Pro. But the company doesn’t see S1 Air eating into their own products’ market share as a problem. “We don’t mind internal cannibalisation. That’s our philosophy. There could be some customers who prefer Ola S1 Air over S1,” he said.
Aggarwal adds that in over next 12 months, the company will build EV products in all two-wheeler categories like commuter scooters, motorbikes, sports bikes, and more “to ensure everyone buying an ICE vehicle today has a much better EV option to choose from”.
Apart from the new model, Aggarwal also announced an update to its software, the Move OS 3 which comes with new features that allow sharing profiles, party mode, improved acceleration, hill hold, vacation mode (which allows energy conservation for upto 200 days), proximity mode (that unlocks when the owner is around and locks when they walk away), etc.
Aggarwal said that unlocking a vehicle won’t require entering passcodes or even pulling out the phone. “This technology is a world-first that doesn’t exist in any vehicle, car, or two-wheeler and we’ve patented it,” he added. Move OS 3 will be available for beta sign-ups on 25 October and the rollout will be complete by early December this year, the company said. Aggarwal also said that Ola Electric has 50 experience centres will go up to 200 by March 2023 and the company is also gearing up for its first international launch in Nepal by the end of this year and Europe and Latin amerce early next year.