Until recently, marketing myopia was not easily blamed on Ola. It began as a cab-hailing business but saw itself in transportation rather than cabs, which marked the brand’s leap into electric mobility for mass-market play with two-wheelers. The name recognition in India gave Ola Electric a boost in early sales, with people eager for a battery-powered EV looking to shake up the fossil-fuelled market. However, a brand is not just a shiny badge. It must not only offer but assure customers the features they value – such as reliable quality. And on this front, Ola has disappointed users, fans and itself with its myopic waffle on a vulnerable part designed to roll out the front wheel of its S1 Pro scooter a year early. as a long story in Peppermint Shown on Thursday, the denial was the company’s initial response to indications of weakness in this model’s ‘front fork arm’. Once evidence piled up of wheels snapping under excessive force from jolts of uneven roads, that stance gave way to the evasion of a fix offered in the guise of an optional “upgrade” to a problem that still persists. will not accept. It still won’t be accepted. has put thousands of S1 Pro riders at risk of accident and has put Ola in a situation that needs to be swiftly salvaged for the sake of brand credibility.
The model in question is a customized version of the Appscooter, designed for smoother European roads by a Dutch EV-maker called Etergo, which Ola acquired in 2020. In its dash for the Indian roads, it might have overlooked the need for more robust wheel-holders. , The result was a series of accidents involving dislodged wheels. Word of this surfaced on social media not long after the EV’s launch, but Ola portrayed them as isolated cases, even implying that misuse by riders was to blame . Industry veterans, however, were aware of the vulnerable road conditions of this design, one reason they insisted on sturdier accessories. In the case of the S1 Pro, sudden braking can also lock the front wheel, causing enough injuries to sound the alarm. This should have prompted Ola to recall all units sold for a proper safeguard, as other auto-makers often do. Instead, the company has treated it like a software upgrade of sorts. The delivery of the model Sport this year is a reinforced fork arm. In mid-March, Ola Electric issued a statement calling the safety concerns “unfounded”, but also offered users of the older version the “option” of a free fork-arm replacement. These mixed signals were probably intended to keep the profile of the problem low, which led to inconsistencies among owners. After all, unlike a software platform, a motor vehicle cannot tolerate weak links at all, and a ‘bug’ that can cause a two-wheeler to lose a wheel cannot be taken for granted so easily. , Do it in view of physical harm.
For a cautionary tale, Ola need look no further than Tata’s Nano car, which suffered a terminal blow when it caught fire. In a market where there is no shortage of options, we expect the least of the quality of what is on sale. Foresight should have cleared Ola Electric at first notice of danger, which would have given it a reputation of being a responsible player. The company may still have room for an effective rear-guard action. To boost customer confidence, it needs a complete recall of all vehicles with weak links. Ola will also have to reset its public interface for transparency. No one likes to be taken for a ride.
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