Close to a year after Ola Electric acquired Dutch-based e-scooter brand Etergo, the Indian shared mobility brand has announced its foray into the electric personal mobility field with the launch of the Ola electric scooter. Besides, the brand has also released a few details around the massive factory that will be producing these scooters out of Tamil Nadu, which is set to be the largest electric vehicle facility in India, spread over 500 acres and built with an investment of over Rs 2400 crore.
Ola Electric acquired Netherlands-based electric mobility brand Etergo in May last year. Founded in 2014, Etergo has developed an all-electric state-of-the-art AppScooter, which has won multiple awards across the world for its innovative design and engineering at CES 2019 and Automotive Brand Contest, Germany amongst others. First revealed in 2018, the AppScooter uses swappable high energy density batteries to deliver a range up to 240km.
The Ola electric scooter, hence, looks quite similar to the Etergo e-scooter, however, Ola says it has been revised keeping in mind the Indian landscape. The first change is that while the top speed of the Etergo was regulated keeping in mind EU regulations, the Ola e-scooter will not have any such restrictions. For their part, Ola says the top speed would be close to 100kmph, though we will need to test it out before giving our impressions.
The biggest trick here, however, is the under-seat storage, which Ola says is a massive 50 litres. This is because the curved batteries slide into the scooter’s spine. Besides, the batteries are swappable, with three present, and each can be charged to its 80-kilometre capacity in two and a half hours, for a hypothetical total range close to 240km, which is more than double that of any competitor. Besides, it also boasts a wheelbase of 1335mm, which is 55mm longer than the Piaggio Vespa, which means two-up riding won’t be a squeeze.
Moving now to performance, though the 100kmph top speed remains as yet unverified, Ola also says the 0 to 45kmph time will be 3.9 seconds, making the Ola Scooter’s performance quite sprightly for city use. Etergo says its Appscooter, on which the Ola electric scooter is based upon makes 135Nm, though will this translate to the Ola scooter as well remains to be seen. And lastly, the large touchscreen cluster (similar to that on the Ather 450X) will also include navigation.
Lastly, we come to the price. This hasn’t been disclosed as yet, but considering the Ola electric scooter is aimed at the Ather 450X, Chetak and TVS iQube, we expect the price to be around Rs 1 lakh.