Ola Electric Upgrading Its Electric Scooters to Avoid Further Recalls: Report

Ola S1 Pro electric scooters are reportedly receiving an upgrade to the vehicle control unit (VCU) in order to accommodate future updates and to mitigate heating issues, pre-emptively preventing further recalls. New Ola S1 Pro units are being shipped with an upgraded VCU with more RAM and onboard storage, according to a report. The company is also tipped to soon perform VCU upgrades for older units. The company, which issued a recall of 1,441 electric scooters last month, is yet to announce any plans to upgrade the VCU on units that have been sold in the country.

According to a report by 91Mobiles citing tipster Yogesh Brar, Ola Electric could soon adopt a recall schedule or perform home visits to in order to upgrade the VCU on electric scooters that shipped before March. The older VCU available on those models does not have enough RAM and storage for future updates, according to the report. The revelation comes amid multiple complaints from users claiming their scooter switches on reverse mode or shuts down automatically, and an instance of the company’s Ola Electric S1 Pro scooter catching fire in Pune in March.

The purported new VCU that is being used by the SoftBank-backed company on new and existing Ola S1 Pro scooters is said to have more RAM and onboard storage — enough to accommodate updates in the future. However, it is worth noting that the company has not revealed any plans to perform upgrades to units that have been shipped, or a change in the VCU configuration for future units. Gadgets 360 has reached out to Ola Electric and will update this article when the company responds.

The report does not specify the specifications of the new VCU. When the Ola S1 and Ola S1 Pro were launched, the company had revealed that the VCU was powered by an octa-core processor with 3GB of RAM, and offers 4G, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth connectivity. The company’s official website currently lists the available RAM as 3GB.

When the Ola S1 Pro was launched, the company had also revealed that it would be equipped with a Battery Management System that “actively monitors the battery for optimal durability, performance, range and safety.” According to the tipster, the company is closely monitoring the health of battery cells and battery packs, which can be controlled via the VCU. With several important aspects such as speed, thermal levels, charging control, voltage, power efficiency, diagnosis and monitoring controlled by the VCU, the upgrade could allow for improved software updates that could address some of the issues affecting Ola S1 Pro owners, according to the report.

Last month, Ola Electric stated it would recall 1,441 of its electric scooters, weeks after one of the company’s vehicles caught fire, which prompted an investigation into the incident. The company revealed that it would conduct a diagnostic and health check of scooters in a specific batch, and issued a recall of 1,441 vehicles. The firm had also revealed the preliminary assessment of the vehicle that caught fire revealed that it was an isolated one, and that the recalls were a pre-emptive measure.