Ola Electric relaunches S1 scooter in India at Rs 1lakh

One year after launching the S1 and S1 Pro electric scooter, Ola Electric took time to relaunch a more affordable base model of the flagship scooter, the S1, this Independence Day. So what's changed a year since we first laid eyes on this model? Not a thing. It's the same scooter that's based on the more equipped S1 Pro scooter, that never came to be since its launch last August, and yes, it still costs the same as before at an introductory price  of Rs 1lakh.

The S1 is based on the company's flagship model, however, to keep the costs in check, it won't get as many features that the S1 Pro gets. But that's not to say that the scooter will really be lacking in terms of features, because the list is pretty extensive. The S1 e-scooter will feature the Move OS 2.0 operating system as its more expensive sibling.

Can't remember what sets the two scooters apart, allow me to jog your memory. Firstly, the battery pack on the S1 is a smaller 3kWh unit as compared to the 4kWh unit of the S1 Pro, so range drops down to 141km (ARAI certified) from 180km on a single charge in eco mode. Then the S1 misses out on Hyper ride mode, which is basically the mode in the scooter accelerates the quickest. Top speed of the S1 is limited to 95kmph while the S1 Pro can hit a claimed 120kmph top whack. And then you of course miss out on some features like cruise control, voice assist, hill-hold, and you have just five colour options to choose from - black, white, silver, blue and red â€" while with the S1 Pro you have an additional five to choose from.

The S1 houses the same motor as the top-spec S1 Pro variant â€" peak motor power is 8.5kW and continuous power is rated at 5.5kW.

The company have stated that Move OS 3 will be coming this year around Diwali, which will enhance the scooters capabilities and give owner the chance to actually taste what they had originally ordered â€" these features include the advanced proximity alerts, advanced regen and more. You can now extend the battery, motor and other components of the S1 and S1 pro scooters for five years.

Bhavish Agarwal also walked us through how Ola Electric is going to soon manufacture lithium-ion battery cells over at the Ola Battery Innovation Center (BIC) in Bengaluru, where they have have wet and dry labs to test and assemble cells right here in India.

Ola also took time to state that the company will setup a 100-hypercharger network in the top 100 cities in the next couple of months. At the time of writing this article, Ola's hyper charging network isn't functional.

Ola Electric also showed off another clip of its first ever electric car, which will launch in two years time, and threw a couple of specs our way for us to feed on. Click here to read all about it.