Review : Okinawa Praise

[Disclaimer : I am not a brand ambassador nor I have been paid for writing this review. I wrote it to let many people get the information they need regarding this e-scooter as I am tired of explaining the features to many. All the opinions are purely my personal based on my riding experience of this e-scooter. I will be updating this post as time progresses]

Co-incidentally, I am writing this post while a nationwide strike is going on about petrol and diesel price hikes (1 lit petrol = Rs. 85 at the time of this writing) while I am happily riding my e-scooter which is completely free of the word "oil". As I had a requirement to buy a new 2 wheeler, I was searching for options in the market. I had a strong preference to buy an e-scooter due to various reasons that are obvious and planned to buy a petrol based scooter only if I cannot find a viable option in e-scooter ranges. So I started a research, found 3 promising options available in the market - Okinawa, Hero Electric and 22Motors. Hero Electric were initially successful in creating a poor impression 2 years ago on e-scooters, they are coping up with it. However, I liked the Indian startups Okinawa and 22Motors for their varieties. I chose Okinawa and after little more than 1 month of usage with 1st service complete, I am quite happy with it.

What did I buy?

I bought Okinawa Praise for close to Rs 74000 in total in July 2018. I did not attempt to try 22Motors Flow as I personally liked the look and feel of Praise and having a dealership in my city. I am not going to do a price comparison or feature comparison.

Why did I buy? What features does it have? What is so good about it?

These stats are from whatever I gathered and observed with real time driving experience for little over 1 month. I travel about 35 KM every day for office commute and other reasons in the city of Hyderabad and the terrain contains ups, downs, bridges, high traffic, good-bad roads etc.

• Its giving me a mileage of close to 100-120 KM on road per full charge in the city. Each full charge takes 7-8 hours. 
• Its friendly and safety features are a great deal. For example, the wheel lock alarm system, no start on side stand, auto low speed reverse movement while backing up, USB charging outlet, normal plug socket for charging etc are great to have features. 
• No Engine means No Sound, No Combustion, No Pollution, Lesser Maintenance etc. It works simply on a battery set and a motor. I started getting an extra monthly electricity bill of close to Rs 400 for my usage described above against a petrol bill of close to Rs 1600.
• It has a great leg room and regenerative power mechanism during drive.
•  No worries about driving it in the rain as I rode it about a week in rain just to test. 
• It can hit 65 KMPH on road in Sport mode and can additionally get to 75 KMPH in turbo mode if needed in those "over taking" scenarios. 
• Packaged with regular modern features like Tubeless tyres, disc brakes, day lights etc.

What is not so great about it?

• Okinawa Praise has a higher ground clearance which is good in a way as per its design but people who are bit short (< 5'4") will have a problem reaching their legs to ground. 
• Additionally, people accustomed to driving scooters like Activa and Jupiter will have to ergonomically adjust their sitting. 
• Another thing is the turn indicators arrows in the dashboard are not so clearly visible in the Sun light although the actual indicators are clearly blinking. 
• The handle controls are a bit to far to reach from the grip. I felt the fingers needed to be long to reach the controls for horn, head light switch etc.
• No complaints on pick up in general but at times in the traffic when the brake is released, it takes an extra second to accelerate. Its not a negative point but not sure if it can be improved.
• Additionally, the battery indicator does not necessarily show the exact battery levels when you power the bike on. This is explained by the Showroom during the sales as well. You will get to know the accurate battery levels only during the load like, while you are actually driving or when you are driving up the terrain. This will confuse the riders and until you get real experience, you will not get the real idea about how much actual battery you are running with. Adding to this confusion, the battery recharges automatically whenever a break is applied and the level increases indicating the same.

What not to expect?

• Do not expect the same speed and pick up when you are riding with another person on the scooter.It will be a bit less just like a petrol bike.
• Do not expect the same speed while riding up a slope and lesser speeds while riding down.
• Do not expect immediate pick ups after or during a brake.
• Do not expect to be a race winner, while riding it with petrol bikes, but you will almost reach there.
• Do not expect that it will always be a major catastrophic problem if the e-scooter does not charge. Most of the times, it ends being a minor one that can even be fixed over phone.

Is this e-scooter for me?

Re-consider purchasing e-scooter if any of the answers for the following is an yes for you. Some of the questions might not be suitable in future when Lithium battery is used or when charging stations come up on roads and highways.

• Do I ride my normal petrol bike crazily on the road and traffic as if I am hero performing stunt?
• Do I ride more than 100 KM per day and cannot charge after that?
• Do I ride in hilly areas where the road inclination angle is more than 22 deg ?
• Do I need more than 65 KMPH speed?
• Can I manage to get a charging point in the parking lot where I park my e-scooter?
• Do you frequently travel with a partner with whom the combined passenger weight crosses 150 KG?

What if the battery dies while I am riding?

To be honest, at the moment you cannot do anything but to charge it by plugging it in to a near by socket or carry the vehicle in a truck to home and charge it there. Yes, that is the answer a normal commuter expects too. Imagine you are on road with very less petrol in your bike, you still started to office thinking you will be able to manage. But the bike ran out of petrol and stopped in a no petrol bunk for 10 KM area. What do you do? Its the same thing. You take care of your battery charge in advance. You plan your commutes based on the battery levels shown in the indicator. The problem might be less painful with more EV charging stations coming up soon but yes, for now, plan your commutes properly. The simplest way is to charge it daily after your commute is done for the day. It charges whatever it needs and cuts off automatically. It is the recommended procedure for long life of the batteries too. By the way, the batteries are to be replaced after 36000 KMs. A Li ion battery variant is expected to be released by Dec 2018 and the charging time of the battery is expected to be decreased by 50%.

Finally, Why did I take risk of buying an e-scooter when there are no solid reviews about it and which is recently launched in the market?

I believed that Petrol/Diesel is not the future. We need cleaner energy production and consumption. I was surprised by the features during the research as the initial electric scooters were not so great. I believed that I got what I wanted after walking and talking to the dealership. I might have written this review too early, just after 45 days of buying it. Well, that's the first impression. Things like overall performance might change later on aging but till now its running as promised by the dealer. So I trust them and at the moment, I am proud of buying it too.

My Current Rating - 4.5/5 - Excellent

Review after 2.5 years

So I had to change the battery pack from Lead Acid to Lithium Ion. This is a great upgrade. Disappointing fact is that the lead acid battery pack did not reach the mileage as promised initially by Okinawa. So that was a double investment for me and it almost costed same as the original Okinawa praise pro with Li battery thats in market right now. So its not a disaster in terms of total investment that I made on my vehicle but its a disappointment it didnt reach the expectation. Do you need to worry about it if you are going to buy this? NO. Because there are no lead acid battery vehicles in the market now.

Updated rating - 4/5 - mainly because I had to change the battery sooner than expected

"Everyone talks about having a change in the world for good but very less think that the change starts within, for the world to change"    ---  Leo Tolstoy