Kunal Kamra’s tweet notwithstanding… we at PlugInCaroo propose 3 simple solutions to a thousand problems at Ola Electric service centers.

1st let us acknowledge that Ola Electric is having problems with timely repairs

2nd let us also acknowledge the fact that competitors are using this opportunity to show Ola Electric in bad light. This has happened before also when Tata launched the Nano.

Ola Electric’s 3 main problem till now has been its:

a) Inability to repair the electric scooter… in a timely manner…

b) Same problem happening multiple times and

c) Piling up of eScooters at Ola Service Centers.

Most of the time the reason given is that…

the motor is not working. This is not ALWAYS TRUE… because

1. Electric Motors seldom fail: Electric Motors do fail… but it is very rare. Look at the ceiling fan… how many times has your ceiling fan failed? How many times have you repaired your fan? Its working 8 to 10hrs daily… sometimes even 24hrs in summer. An Ola Motor is the same… but it is a little more heavy due to more winding and bigger magnet required for more torque. Sometimes the winding is done with cheap aluminium and it melts easily leading to short circuit. But a motor winding done with well enameled copper wire will last a long time.

EVs have just 3 main parts… Motor… Batteries… Controller.

But Smart eScooters have one more part called VPU (Vehicle Control Unit) which controls the controller. Call it the CPU or Computer or Brain of the vehicle. It comes with OctaCore Processors, 3 GB RAM, 4G SIM card too is on this board.

Also read this post: How to repair Ola Electric Scooter? | Easy

SEE BELOW PICTURE, THIS IS WHERE MOST OF THE PROBLEM OCCUR… AND SERVICE CENTERS SEEM UNABLE TO FIX IT:

(We at PlugInCaroo have always been against the use of VCU and the touch screen display on economy eScooters because it increases the price of the vehicle by 25% without adding even 1% extra worth. If both these parts were taken off then it would straightaway mean a reduction in Rs 30,000/- We have always felt that these 2 are not that important in a “poor” man’s mode of transport… the scooter. Maybe VCUs and Touch Screen display could be used on more premium and expensive models costing above Rs 200,000. Then it makes sense but adding these two on ECONOMY eScooters is borderline silly).

If the power to VCU was disconnected by pulling out the DC plug and reconnected after 20 seconds it could fix lot of software issues. It would be something like restarting the computer or restarting the Phone when it hangs.

This is not only with Ola Electric… but vehicles of Ather Energy too has faced this problem. See the post from TeamBHP regarding Ather issue:

Another post on TeamBHP on Ather:

So a technician can blame only one of these 3 parts… and most of the time he will say its the problem with the motor.

The biggest issue with the electric scooter is that these eScooters are SMART… meaning that they have a computer in them with a CPU or chip that controls them. So when there is an update or some malfunction it is difficult for the technician at the service center to fix them. Most of these “service personal” themselves would be new at the job or not properly trained.

So Solution No. 1 is to build eScooters without TouchScreen Display & VCUs.

Solution No 2. is to make youTube of Ola eScooter Repairing Videos … maybe some guys already made such videos on YouTube… get these videos linked in a “How to Repair Ola Electric Scooter” website.

This will encourage the local mechanics to learn how to repair Ola eScooters easily.

Solution No. 3 – Don’t accept unrepairable vehicles at the service centre. Since there is no space to keep the vehicles it is adviceable not to accept vehicles having major parts change or repair problems. Call the owners with the vehicle only after the parts arrive at the Service Centre.