The Ather 450 Plus and the 450X, and the Ola S1 and the S1 Pro are gold standards as far as electric scooters are concerned. But now Vida (by Hero MotoCorp) is challenging them, with the V1 Plus and the V1 Pro.
On paper, the V1 Plus and the V1 Pro appear as good as the established competition—it is as if Vida has done trim-to-trim marking—but Vida scooters are also the most expensive of the lot.
Range
Vida scooters have a better range than Ather, but lesser than Ola. The S1 Pro model of Ola has a range of 181 km that is almost as good as week-long riding in certain cities.
Acceleration
In terms of acceleration, both the V1 Plus and the V1 Pro are faster than Ather scooters, but the quickest among the lot is again the S1 Pro, which goes from 0-40 km/hour in just 2.9 seconds.
Also Read: Not disruptive pricing, but a disruptive package: Pawan Munjal, chairman & CEO, Hero MotoCorp
Top speed
Electric scooter companies usually limit top speed electronically (for better safety and for maximising range), and so while Vida and Ather have limited the top speeds of their scooters to 80 km/hour and 90 km/hour, respectively, the S1 Pro touches a top speed of 116 km/hour.
Is the Vida really expensive?
Ex-showroom, Delhi, prices of the V1 Plus and the V1 Pro are Rs 1.45 lakh and Rs 1.59 lakh (while this includes FAME II incentive, it doesn’t include state subsidy, and so the effective prices of Vida scooters will be lower in Delhi). That makes Vida scooters more expensive than Ather (450 Plus for Rs 1.17 lakh and 450X for Rs 1.39 lakh) and Ola (S1 for Rs 85,000 and S1 Pro for Rs 1.1 lakh). But Pawan Munjal, chairman & CEO, Hero MotoCorp, told FE that while the pricing isn’t disruptive, the package is.
What he implied is that with Vida scooters, a customer will get so much more than merely the scooter. This includes a comprehensive charging package, removable battery, standard five-year warranty for 50,000 km, battery warranty for three years or up to 30,000 km, Vida Cloud (an exclusive interface that engages the rider, vehicle and the service backend), Green EMI (interest rates at 1.5-2% lesser than the prevailing financial options), buy-back scheme (buy-back at 70% of purchase value between the 16th to 18th months of ownership), test ride for up to three days, and repair on-site (service anywhere).
