Ola production blows past 1,000 electric scooters per day, opening more orders soon

Despite running into initial delays, Ola has significantly ramped up production of its high-speed smart electric scooters. Now the Indian company says it will be opening up a new payment window soon to complete more orders of its Ola S1 and S1 Pro electric scooters.

Those scooters have made waves in the industry for their combination of high performance and low prices.

Confirmation from the CEO that the scooters would be heading towards the export market this year has stoked international anticipation as well.

Ola’s electric scooters offer a maximum speed of 115 km/h (71 mph) yet start at an affordable INR 99,999 (approximately US $1,350).

Ola originally intended to deliver the first scooters several months ago, but deliveries only began in December after production delays.

Production rates appeared to have soared though, as the company boasted a daily rate of nearly 1,000 scooters at the beginning of the year.

The scooters are produced in a megafactory known as the Ola Futurefactory. It has an intended designed capacity of two million electric scooters per year, or around 5,500 per day.

Plans include expanding the production capacity of the entirely female-run factory to upwards of 10 million electric scooters per year.

Now that production appears to be ramping up, Ola has announced plans to open a new window for payments.

Reservation holders that have laid down 20,000 INR (approximately US $270) will be able to make a final payment starting Jan 21. CEO Bhavish Aggarwal confirmed that those deliveries would occur over January and February.

Electrek’s Take

It’s great to see Ola’s production numbers growing so quickly.

The company definitely had some growing pains in the beginning, but largely started from scratch. Well, almost from scratch. And that means there were bound to be kinks to work out in the production process.

But the photos of a sea of scooters don’t lie, nor do all the tweets from Ola owners receiving their scooters.

Now I’m keen to learn whether the CEO’s declaration last year that US exports would begin in early 2022 was overly optimistic, or whether the company is actually planning on opening orders to US customers soon. And assuming Americans will get a chance to order an Ola scooter, how much will the price increase over that entirely reasonable domestic price tag?