Ola S1 Air Launched With 110cc Scooter Rivalling Price

Ola Electric has finally launched its newest budget electric scooter offering, the Ola S1 Air, and it sounds promising, on paper, at least. Here's everything you need to know about it.

Currently, Ola offers the S1 in two flavours - the S1 Pro and the standard S1. The more premium S1 Pro comes in at Rs 1.40 lakh, while the more budget-friendly S1 at Rs 99,999 (both ex-showroom, including FAME 2 subsidy). The Ola S1 Air has been priced even more competitively at just Rs 79,999, making it more affordable than even most petrol-powered scooters. That said, it costs Rs 4,413 more than the DLX variant of India’s best-selling ICE scooter, the Honda Activa 6G and this price is for the festive season, valid till 24 October only, post which the e-scooter will cost Rs 84,999. Here’s a quick look at where the Ola S1 Air stands against its siblings in terms of specs.

As we can see in the chart, the S1 Air differs from its more expensive siblings in some critical ways. Firstly, it’s running a smaller battery, which limits the claimed ARAI range to 101km. That might be significantly lower than the S1 and S1 Pro, but it’s still on par with other mainstream electric scooters like the base TVS iQube. At 99kg, the S1 Air is an extremely light for its segment as well. With a less powerful motor, its top speed and 0-40kmph acceleration figures are very similar to the base TVS iQube as well (82kmph and 4.2 seconds respectively for the TVS). You’ll also notice that the S1 Air, just like the iQube and unlike its siblings, runs a hub motor at the rear wheel instead of a mid-mounted motor.

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Surprisingly, it does carry over a lot of the other features from its more premium siblings such as the Reverse mode, seven-inch touch screen display, smartphone connectivity, multiple ride profiles, music and call control, multiple riding moods (which changes the theme and layout of the console and also changes the motor sounds) and even the “party mode”, where the scooter’s inbuilt speakers can play music from your connected smartphone.

Along with this, Ola Electric has also revealed details about the MoveOS 3.0. This update brings features like faux motor sounds, hill hold, vacation mode which conserves the battery over an extended period of non-usage, proximity unlock, ride moods (Bolt, Vintage and Eclipse), regenerative braking V2 (with three modes), Hypercharging, Bluetooth calling as well as key sharing. Customers can opt to sign up for the beta testing of this update, starting October 24th. The update will officially rollout in early December.

Where the S1 Air is really killing it though, even when compared to affordable and competent electric offerings like the TVS iQube, is price. The TVS costs Rs 1.12 lakh on road in its home city of Bengaluru, while the S1 Air is almost Rs 32,000 cheaper. Clearly, Ola Electric is not just gunning for petrol scooters, but also for the more affordable electric scooters in the country. You can book the S1 Air for yourself for Rs 999 through Ola's website or application. The payment window will start in the first week of February 2023 and deliveries will commence in the first week of April 2023. Ola Electric also revealed details about the accessories, including a pillion side step, centre stand and an underseat storage organiser. More details will be announced in the coming months.