Ola to take final payment for e-scooter S1's booked units after test drives

Ola Electric on Wednesday said it is on track to hand over scooters within the "specific delivery window" announced earlier and has decided to take final payment for the booked units of its electric scooter S1 after initiating test drives for customers from November 10.

There have been complaints from customers who booked the company's electric scooters about lack of clarity of test drive and delivery schedules after making payments.

The company had earlier said it would begin scooter deliveries from this month. It was supposed to start taking the final payment of S1 and S1 pro from October 18 and begin deliveries from October 25.

It has now decided to ask the customers to make full payment only after taking a test drive thereby raising questions about timely deliveries of the already booked units.

When contacted over the issue, the company said it would honour the delivery schedule.

"Ola Electric has provided a specific delivery window to every customer who has purchased our scooter and we remain on track to deliver the scooters within that window," Ola Electric said in a statement.

The company further said: "We prefer customers to pay the balance amount once they have the opportunity to take a test drive and hence the final payment window is aligned to the test drive dates, starting Nov 10 onwards, which have also been communicated to the customers. We are committed to delivering the scooter within the respective delivery window to every customer."

The company stated that if a customer decided to cancel the booking after the test ride, the entire amount taken would be refunded.

When contacted, a customer who has booked the scooter noted that there was a lack of transparency from the company's side.

"They are saying that deliveries would begin after test drives. But there is a lack of clarity in which cities or towns the test drives will take place. Bookings have come from all over the country so will they conduct test drives all over the nation? If not then there would be a delay in deliveries," the customer noted.

Last month, Ola had stated that the sales of its maiden electric scooter crossed Rs 1,100 crore in two days.

The two e-scooters, Ola S1 and S1 Pro, were unveiled in August this year.

The company had previously stated that it would initially start with a 10 lakh annual production capacity and then scale it up to 20 lakh, in line with market demand, in the first phase.

Ola Electric had claimed that its plant - when fully completed - would have an annual capacity of one crore units, "that is 15 per cent of the world's entire total two-wheeler production".