This is why people are going out of their way to burn showrooms and service centres of Ola Electric, and recording themselves singing “Tadap Tadap ke is dil se AAH nikalti rahi” while referring to their regrettable life choices (like buying an electric scooter).
All these stories might seem funny to casual readers, but think about it. How frustrated must a person have been to leave his work, forget his family, and risk actual jail time by attempting to burn a company’s showroom (or singing “Tadap Tadap ke” in front of it). It’s not easy to burn a showroom, mind you. It takes real effort. True grit. And significant quantities of Petrol (something an EV scooter buyer thought he’ll never need).
When buying an Electric Scooter, people often think how much money they’re going to save because their magic scooty will run at “20 Paise/Km”. But do they save all that money? No. That dream sequence is met with a seriously rude awakening when the scooter breaks down for the first time. And then when they try to get it repaired.
From then on, it becomes clear to the buyer that they didn’t actually buy an Electric Scooter. They bought an absolutely fresh and perhaps unending case of Piles.
All these companies (like Ola, Hero Electric, etc.) have done is eradicate people’s faith and trust in the entire product line from the very core of it. Their products were sheeit. So much that they caught fire on the road, burning people’s asshes. And then their service was even worse. Their batteries (coming from China) were unreliable, and repairability of their products was zero.
These cases, which don’t seem to be coming down soon, will reduce EV Scooters to a B2B offering, where companies willing to deal with this sheeit at scale will be the only folks who’ll buy them.
I take no pleasure in writing this as I myself made the grave mistake of buying Electric Scooties while building SpotHealth. I made that blunder, and paid for it. I definitely didn’t save any money, rather paid with my blood when these Hemmorhoids gave up on me. Thank god I had petrol vehicles on stand by. To atone for my sins, I intend to go to Varanasi and meditate for a year. Om Shanti.
To the people on the path of making a similar mistake, here’s my advice: Don’t do it. Wait for a few years till these people have proven their products on the road. Till then, better be safe, than calling someone with a Petrol bike to to push your Electric Scooty (as you fight climate change). Fouck that sheeit.
P.S. Some products are actually great, I’ve heard. Like Ather. But I can’t be sure because of a lack of personal experience.
This post was originally shared by Nishant Mittal on Linkedin.