Since its launch in India, the Ola S1 electric scooter has received criticism for numerous quality-related issues. Recently, several instances of the front suspension breaking while riding have surfaced on the internet. As a result, Ola Electric issued a recall for suspension replacements. In a recent Twitter post, Ola Electric CEO Bhavish Agarwal attempted to showcase the strength of the Ola S1.
Agarwal posted a picture of an Ola S1 electric scooter being ridden by six people. Apart from the rider, five more individuals were either hanging onto the seat or standing, with one person dangerously sitting on the foot-board. All six people on the moving scooter wore helmets and were performing this stunt in a closed enclosure. A video of this stunt also appeared on YouTube with the caption “#BuiltToPerfection.” In the picture, Agarwal referred to this as the toughest stress test he had ever seen on any scooter and deemed the Ola S1 a beast in the strength test picture.
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Agarwal’s aim with the video was to showcase the Ola S1’s build quality strength, which has been heavily criticized lately for questionable build quality issues. While the video demonstrates that the scooter can carry the weight of six people, it is not an official or correct way of testing the suspension of the Ola S1. Ola Electric could have performed a more appropriate and acceptable comparison of the old and new front forks with a series of tests, including load stress, bend, twist, and compression tests, which companies typically conduct as industrial norms.
Wow! The toughest stress test I’ve seen of any scooter till date!
Ola S1 is a beast 🙂 pic.twitter.com/xca2A06AP9
— Bhavish Aggarwal (@bhash) April 17, 2023
Ola started replacing the front suspension
The Ola S1 Pro electric scooter has a unique centrally-mounted front fork, which is unseen in any other scooter to date. However, this unique front suspension has received scrutiny due to several instances of it breaking down while people were riding their S1 electric scooters. Ola Electric issued a recall for replacing the faulty front suspensions, which is a paid upgrade for customers and not a free replacement.
Last year, Ola Electric recalled around 1,441 scooters as a corrective measure in response to an incident from Pune, where an S1 Pro caught fire. Ola Electric is yet to give an official statement regarding the cause of this incident. Apart from this, many incidents related to technical, software and quality issues in the Ola S1 Pro have come out on social media. Serious software issues, like scooters going in reverse at a high speed and the remaining range dropping down suddenly, have been reported in many parts of the country.
The Ola S1 Pro is powered by an 8.5 kW electric motor, which produces 58 Nm of torque and gives a 0-60 km/h sprint time of 5 seconds. In the Hyper mode, the scooter is capable of reaching a top speed of 115 km/h. The scooter has a 3.97 kWh battery on board, which takes 6 hours and 30 minutes to get fully charged through regular home supply.
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