- Ola Electric halts production of the vanilla Ola S1 electric scooter.
- Ola Electric has notified buyers to upgrade to Ola S1 Pro for Rs 30,000.
- Buyers still opting for the Ola S1 might have to wait for 9 to 11 more months.
Ola Electric has halted production of the Ola S1 electric scooter in India. The company has also sent out new information to customers stating that they are prioritising the Ola S1 Pro model over the vanilla Ola S1. Ola Electric has notified Ola S1 customers that the company has suspended production of the electric scooter. Ola is focussing its efforts on increasing the production of the Ola S1 Pro electric scooter as it is in higher demand. However, Ola Electric has made two announcements regarding the same, but both communications reveal detail in two different lines thus stirring confusion amongst customers.
Ola Electric sends out notifications
Ola Electric has sent out notifications to its Ola S1 buyers via an email stating that they can opt to upgrade to the Ola S1 Pro with an upcoming payment window scheduled for January 21st at 6 pm. Buyers have been given an option to upgrade to a higher-specced model as the company halts production of the vanilla Ola S1 electric scooter citing the higher demand for Ola S1 Pro.
Ola Electric will allow buyers to upgrade to Ola S1 Pro via the scheduled final payment window as the company has now shifted resources to the sole production of the Ola S1 Pro electric scooter owing to its demand. Deliveries of the Ola S1 Pro scooter can be taken after the vehicle is dispatched in 10-20 days depending upon the location and RTO legislation. Ola Electric has also mentioned the scope of resuming the production of the vanilla Ola S1 electric scooter variant again sometime in late 2022, resulting in an extension to the already long waiting.
Post this, a tweet from Bhavish Agarwal, co-founder Ola, conveyed the company’s intentions to ship the Ola S1 Pro as the Ola S1 with some of the premium and high-performance features being locked. These new features can be upgraded to on a later date by paying the balance amount via a performance upgrade. This is similar to what Tesla offers to its customers.
However, customers have reacted to this in a variety of ways but a large chunk of them seem to be disheartened. In fact, the dicey communication being laid out by the company when it comes to the future of the two variants and how the company plans to move ahead in the future. Some buyers have expressed grievances as they complain about misleading marketing as the company is essentially promoting buyers of certain variants to a higher variant at a cost or keeping them waiting for an unreasonably long amount of time.
