Delivery status of ola scooters: Ola Electric is still delaying deliveries of its electric scooters

Bangalore: Ola Electric has once again pushed back delivery times for its highly anticipated S1 and S1 Pro electric scooters, advising customers who have booked the vehicles that it will not start deliveries until the second half of December due to the global shortage. chips and electronics.

The company had until recently said it would begin deliveries of its scooters later in November. It was already a month behind the delivery schedule Ola Electric told potential buyers when it opened a two-day reservation window in mid-September.

“Due to the current global shortage of chipsets and electronic parts, there are inevitable delays in the delivery of your Ola S1,” Ola Electric said in an email to a customer. “We apologize for the delay and assure you that we are increasing production as quickly as possible so that you can get your Ola S1 as soon as possible.” ET reviewed a copy of the email.

A spokesperson for Ola Electric confirmed that the company has informed customers of the delay in deliveries, attributing it to global chip shortages that have plagued several original equipment manufacturers in India as well as around the world.

The first delivery times for the S1 and S1 Pro will now be December 15-31, even as the company generates more hype around its vehicles, offering testing in nine cities including Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi and promising to expand test availability. trips to customers in 1,000 cities by December 15.

“This is the largest direct-to-consumer experience initiative in the history of Indian automotive retailing,” Ola said in her letter to customers. “We want to make the test rides available to all customers as soon as possible and therefore we are prioritizing the allocation of the scooters we produce over the next few weeks to allow for test rides in more than 1000 cities across India. ”

Two people who paid more than Rs 20,000 to reserve the Ola electric scooters told ET they were not convinced the company would meet its revised delivery schedule.

One of the people added that it was baffling that the company was prioritizing its limited supplies for testing to potential buyers rather than speeding up deliveries to those who paid for it in cash. Both people declined to register for fear that their reservation would be canceled or further delayed.

Ola Electric had said it sold scooters worth Rs 1,100 crore during the two-day period it opened bookings in September. Even taking Rs 1.29,999 as the base cost – off-showroom price of the more expensive S1 Pro model excluding state subsidies – this translates to a minimum of around 85,000 reservations for Ola’s scooters .

The company has assured customers that the amount paid for the reservation, or even the total amount paid, is fully refundable until actual delivery of the vehicle.

Ola is also working to eliminate bugs in the early production versions of its S1 and S1 Pro, with several people and publications who have tested the scooters reporting a lack of promised features, buggy software, overheating issues, and a slow accelerator. The company said these issues will be fixed before deliveries begin.

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