Ola’s hotly anticipated upcoming electric scooter has started with a bang as the company has been flooded by pre-order reservations.
The Indian-made electric scooter opened for pre-orders earlier this week, and the demand was unprecedented.
Over 100,000 people lined up to put down a deposit for the new electric scooter.
However, the ultra-low deposit price of 499 INR (around $6) means that these reservations aren’t necessarily all going to convert into committed buyers – especially since the deposit is fully refundable.
Even so, that kind of demand is exactly what Ola needs to validate its new electric scooter megafactory. The company began work several months ago on the sprawling factory compound that is designed to build 2 million electric scooters per year.
The company even has plans to expand production to 10 million electric scooters per year down the road.
All of this sounds like excellent news for a country where two-wheelers are the dominant form of transportation, and where gas-powered vehicles make up the majority of those bikes.
We don’t actually know what the retail price for Ola’s electric scooter will be yet. So far we’ve only heard that “it will be priced aggressively to make it widely accessible.”
The company’s CEO Bhavish Aggarwal understandably seems quite bullish about the scooter’s prospects:
India’s EV revolution begins today as we open reservations for our electric scooter, the first in our range of upcoming EVs. With its incredible performance, technology, and design along with aggressive pricing, it will help accelerate the transition to sustainable mobility. India has the opportunity and potential to become the world leader in EVs and at Ola, we are proud to lead this charge.
We first got a sneak peak at the new Ola electric scooter earlier this year when it was spied being testing in camo wrap.
Since then, we’ve gotten a better look at the bike showing off the scooter’s sleek design.
Unlike many electric scooters and mopeds designed purely for urban use, Ola’s scooter sports higher speed and power specs. It offers a top speed of 100 km/h (62 mph) and new internal testing shows a maximum range of 150 km (93 miles) on a single charge.
The scooter is based on the Dutch-designed AppScooter from the company Etergo. It was acquired by Ola after the original designers ran into financial hurdles.
While we wait for more details regarding the new scooter, we can at least see it in action in the video below.
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