Ola S1 Air's Aggressive Pricing Gives It An Edge

Ola recently launched the S1 Air and expanded its scooter portfolio. The Ola S1 Air is the most affordable scooter from the homegrown Indian brand and the price difference between it and the S1 Pro is quite significant. So how did Ola manage this competitive price tag? Let’s deep dive and find out.

The Motor

The Ola S1 Air opts for a hub motor. The advantage of a hub motor is that it has fewer moving parts and more importantly the components used are more economical and hence more affordable to manufacture. The hub motor used in the Ola S1 Air has been designed in-house. Even in terms of output, the Ola S1 Air’s peak power is 4.5 kW as opposed to the 8.5 kW on its elder sibling. The Ola S1 Air has a claimed top speed of 90 kmph. The new Ola scooter misses out on Hyper mode given its performance.

Battery

The biggest cost component in an electric scooter is its battery pack and they constitute for almost 50% of the sale cost. Ola engineers have employed a smaller 2.98 kWh battery pack on the S1 Air. The S1 Air’s claimed IDC range is 125 km. Furthermore, the S1 Air gets a 750W portable charger.

Revised underpinnings

One can see the cost optimization on the visual end the most. Starting with the telescopic fork that replaces the trailing link unit found on the S1 Pro. This is because the telescopic fork is cheaper to manufacture and hence helps in saving costs. Even at the back, the monoshock suspension has been replaced with twin-shock absorbers. The S1 Air rolls on steel wheels instead of alloy wheels and even the brakes are drum units.

Frame

Ola engineers have designed an all-new frame for the S1 Air and all future products from Ola will be based on this Gen 2 platform. This new frame is around 5% lighter and since the packaging is better, the manufacturing process is also quicker. Since this one platform will be used for multiple variants of the Ola S1, the manufacturing cost has also been reduced. The swingarm of the Ola S1 Air is a twin-sided box swingarm as opposed to the more premium single-sided swingarm that the S1 Pro features.

So by employing the above mentioned changes, Ola has been successful in pricing the S1 Air so competitively. The Ola S1 Pro is priced at Rs 1.40 lakh and the introductory price of the S1 Air (until August 15) is Rs 1.10 lakh. Ola will also be announcing details regarding the new S1X on August 15 so make sure you follow Acko Drive for all the latest updates.