Ola Electric is getting all spooled up to launch its first electric scooter in the Indian market. A few days back, we got our first official glimpse at the scooter through a teaser video and yesterday, Ola Electric announced that interested customers can book an Ola electric scooter on the company website for a refundable amount of ₹499. The announcement was made through Ola Electric’s social media handles. It also mentioned that customers who make the bookings first can look forward to delivery on priority.
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The company witnessed unexpected demand leading to issues with the booking process for many interested buyers. Company chief Bhavish Aggarwal shared that the website was not ready for such a large scale opening. However, the website has now been fixed according to Aggarwal.
In a tweet, he said, “For those who faced issues in the beginning, apologies! We didn’t anticipate the crazy demand and didn’t plan enough scalability of the website. All fixed now.”
One of the major highlights of the Ola Electric scooter is going to be its huge under-seat storage. As the video demonstrated, the under-seat storage of the upcoming Ola Electric scooter can easily gobble up two half-face helmets. When it comes to looks, Ola’s first electric scooter looks similar to the state-of-the-art, tech-laden Etergo Appscooter. In May 2020, Ola Electric Mobility acquired Etergo BV. First revealed in 2018, the AppScooter uses swappable high energy density batteries to deliver a range up to 240km and class-leading acceleration of 0-45kph in 3.9 seconds. It also comes with TFT instrumentation.
The CEO recently also made it official that phase 1 of the plant’s construction has been completed and that we should expect the official launch of the electric scooter to happen soon. India-headquartered Ola started construction of the world’s largest two-wheeler mega-factory on its 500-acre site back in the month of February. The company announced a Rs 2400 crore MoU with the Tamil Nadu government in December 2020 and rapidly completed the land acquisition in January this year.
The company also made it official recently that they have managed to raise the largest long-term debt financing agreement in the Indian EV industry. This 10-year debt of US$100 million is towards the funding and financial closure of Phase 1 of the Ola Futurefactory