Hero Vida V1 Pro Vs Ola S1 Pro: e-Scoots Compared In 10 Pics

World’s largest bike maker’s first EV takes on India’s most popular e-scooter

Hero MotoCorp has officially entered the EV game with the Vida V1 e-scooter. It’s available in two models— V1 Plus and V1 Pro and its proposition is similar to what Ola EVs offer - revolutionising electric mobility in India.

Here’s a quick look at two premium e-scooters, one from India’s most popular EV maker - Ola, and the other, from the world’s largest bike maker. Let us see how the Vida V1 Pro fares when pitted against the Ola S1 Pro in 10 detailed pics.

Design:

The Vida V1 Pro has a strong Southeast Asian design theme. It’s sharp, angular and looks sporty, and its LED headlight looks very cool. But, the coolest feature of the V1 is that it can transform from an e-scoot with a practical design to a sporty one thanks to its modular rear section.

The Ola has a European design. The lines on it are curvy and round, the LED headlight looks futuristic and the single-sided front suspension gives the S1 Pro a very distinct look. Not to forget, it’s available in more than half a dozen colours.

Seat:

The Vida V1 gets a split seat design. Under the front seat is a storage compartment and removable batteries, and under the rear seat is the secondary storage area. Accessing the compartment is done via a button behind the front apron or via the key fob.

Alternatively, the seat on the Ola S1 is a spacious one-piece unit. Accessing the under-seat storage is keyless via the display.

Storage:

The V1 gets a smaller 26-litre bucket, but thanks to its modular design, the rear bracket can be removed and more room can be made for your things. Pretty neat!

In the Ola S1 you get a class-leading 36-litre under-seat storage area. Even with the charger in there, there’s enough room for a lot of things.

Motor:

Hero’s Vida V1 Pro gets an IP68-rated motor making 3.9kW of continuous power and 6kW of peak power. Top speed of the Vida V1 is 80kmph. For perspective, the Ather 450X makes 3.3kW continuous power, and that’s an engaging e-scooter to ride.

The Ola is no stranger to performance, if you can get past its laggy throttle response, you can access a massive 5.5kW of continuous power and 8.5kW peak output. Top speed of the Ola S1 Pro is 101kmph (Vbox tested). So much more fun on tap!

Riding Modes:

The Vida V1 gets three standard riding modes - Eco, Ride and Sport. There’s also a fourth, fully customisable mode, in which you can set the level of regeneration, acceleration, top speed and more to suit your riding needs. Its claimed 0-40kmph sprint time is 3.2seconds.

For cruising around on the Ola S1 Pro you can toggle between four modes - Eco, Normal, Sport and Hyper. We’ve found the Normal mode to be the best for everyday commutes, as it offers very good range and a smoother throttle response. Lastly, Ola claims a 0-40kmph sprint time of 2.9seconds for its flagship.

Battery pack:

The Vida V1 Pro gets a big 3.94kW removable battery pack. The IDC range it claims is a strong 165km. Ola’s got stiff competition. Furthermore, the Vida’s design is battery-swap ready, it’s future proof. That said, at home it takes six hours to charge it back up to 80 per cent. Using Vida’s fast charger, the claimed time for 0-80 per cent topup is a decent 65 minutes.

Until the Simple One arrives, there’s no beating the Ola S1 Pro at a range test. Its comparatively bigger 4kWh battery pack offers a claimed ‘True Range’ of 170km, but we’ve seen about 141km in our range test. It takes six hours and thirty minutes to bring it back to full charge.

Suspension:

On the Vida V1 Pro you get a telescopic front fork and a monoshock at the rear. The scooter rides on 12-inch rims as well, but appears to be running on skinner 90/90-section tyres, like the Gen-2 Ather.

It’s a monoshock setup at the front and at the rear for the Ola S1 which is aesthetically very pleasing. That said, while the ride quality is ok, we think it can be more plusher. Braking is handled by single discs at the front and rear, and the 12-inch rims come shod in wide 110/70 section tyres.

Digital display:

Both brands are offering a crisp seven-inch TFT screen with many on-board functions. Both units are Bluetooth-ready and are touchscreen units.
 

However, the Vida gets a switch cube with physical buttons to navigate through on-screen options while the Ola does not. The control is on the left and looks like a four-way pad of a Gameboy.

Features:

The Vida V1 gets a pretty robust arsenal of features as well and we are sure the list will only get longer with time. Expect the basic ones like geo-fencing, theft alarm, guide-me-home lights and more to be offered from the get-go. On the more practical front it misses out on full navigation and gets only turn-by-turn navigation, for now.

The features list on an Ola S1 Pro is exhaustive, at least on the brochure. Most of them work and some get updated periodically via over-the-air (OTA) updates. All said and done, it has onboard speakers and there’ no feeling cooler than playing Sidhu Moose Wala songs while riding down MG road.

Verdict:

The arrival of big names like Hero MotoCorp, TVS and Bajaj into the EV arena will certainly make the space more exciting while pushing the expected level of safety from EVs higher. Hero Vida is asking Rs 1,59,000 for the V1 Pro and  Ola is asking Rs 1,29,999 (all prices ex-showroom Delhi) for the S1 Pro.

While the Vida V1 is on sale in just three cities- Delhi, Bengaluru and Jaipur, the Ola S1 e-scooter is on sale nationwide. Ola has the price advantage, Hero has economies of scale, let’s see who revolutionises the electric mobility space in India.