By Team PluginIndia
The Okinawa Ridge+ electric scooter by Gurgaon based Okinawa Scooters, was the company's first product with Lithium-Ion batteries.
We recently had an opportunity to test drive the Ridge+ and give our opinions in our Lets Ride video. Here are more observations and comments.
The Okinawa Ridge+ electric scooter by Gurgaon based Okinawa Scooters, was the company's first product with Lithium-Ion batteries.
We recently had an opportunity to test drive the Ridge+ and give our opinions in our Lets Ride video. Here are more observations and comments.
We visited the dealer in Navi Mumbai, who invited us to take a look at it. In this blog, we highlight our observations in real time as we rode the Ridge+
The Ridge+ is FAME 2 compliant electric scooter, which means that the scooter has achieved the necessary localization to qualify to get a subsidy of Rs 16,900.
The on road price in Pune is around Rs 73,000 which compares to a normal ICE scooter. As usual our recommendation is not to go for a petrol scooter as you start saving money from day 1.
The Ridge+ is FAME 2 compliant electric scooter, which means that the scooter has achieved the necessary localization to qualify to get a subsidy of Rs 16,900.
The on road price in Pune is around Rs 73,000 which compares to a normal ICE scooter. As usual our recommendation is not to go for a petrol scooter as you start saving money from day 1.
Image Credit - www.okinawascooters.com
Design & Color
- There are two colors - Blue & Orange
- The Ridge+ is a good looker with sleek elegant looks
- The LED lights look fantastic at night
Basic Specs
- 60-65 km real world range
- 55 km top speed
- 1.75 kWh kWh Lithium Ion battery pack
- 1.2 kW peak power delivered by the BLDC hub motor
- 2-3 hours for a full charge using a 15 Amp socket
Lets Ride : Video
As you can see from our video, Ashish rode the Ridge+ in pouring rain and he could easily achieve 50 kmph speeds.
Suspension was also satisfactory. The scooter never felt sluggish even in fly overs and in rainy conditions. The scooter also felt light and nimble as Ashish rode it in pouring rain.
The display does not tell us how much charge is pending. The infamous guessometer is the most common issue, among all electric scooters. They display bars based on the voltage of the battery pack, which is not reliable to know the actual percentage state of charge.
As you can see from our video, Ashish rode the Ridge+ in pouring rain and he could easily achieve 50 kmph speeds.
Suspension was also satisfactory. The scooter never felt sluggish even in fly overs and in rainy conditions. The scooter also felt light and nimble as Ashish rode it in pouring rain.
The display does not tell us how much charge is pending. The infamous guessometer is the most common issue, among all electric scooters. They display bars based on the voltage of the battery pack, which is not reliable to know the actual percentage state of charge.
Lets Ride Video - Okinawa Ridge+
The Battery
The capacity of the battery is 1.75 kWh (kilo watt hour), which consumes, approximately 2 units for full charge. This would cost you around Rs 16 (assuming Rs 8 per unit) to go 65 km.
This consumes the same amount of electricity as if an Air conditioner is used for one hour. Okinawa is offering 2 years warranty on its Lithium Ion Battery Battery pack.
This battery is made by Indian company called Trontek and we have information from multiple dealers that this battery for Ridge+ is doing very well with no issues, unlike the iPraise battery by Exicom - which has caused lots of issues. So good job by Trontek.
But what if some cells fail? Will Okinawa dealers be able to provide quick service and turn around times? There is no such software updates planned by Trontek as revealed to us by the company.
Dealers say battery pack will be replaced. But it remains to be seen.
Okinawa/Trontek have not revealed the chemistry of the battery pack. We will take the middle ground and assume around 1000 cycles - which indicates that this pack can be used for 4 to 5 years.
Okinawa Claims range of 100 km on website, but we have found out with dealers and customers that it gives around 60-65 km in real world conditions. Okinawa is getting away by borderline making false claims, for example, when the Okinawa Praise scooter was launched they claimed 200 km per charge, but the real world range was around 90 km.
This can be misleading to customers as real world range is way different than range achieved in test conditions.
Okinawa's Eco App apparently shows battery information. This is something we could not test. But we have a contact of the customer, who has been using the scooter for 8 months, and he says his scooter has no such feature. We will update this article as and when we get some information.
The user needs to charge the removable battery using a 15 Amp socket and the battery will get charged in 2-3 hours from 0%.
The capacity of the battery is 1.75 kWh (kilo watt hour), which consumes, approximately 2 units for full charge. This would cost you around Rs 16 (assuming Rs 8 per unit) to go 65 km.
This consumes the same amount of electricity as if an Air conditioner is used for one hour. Okinawa is offering 2 years warranty on its Lithium Ion Battery Battery pack.
This battery is made by Indian company called Trontek and we have information from multiple dealers that this battery for Ridge+ is doing very well with no issues, unlike the iPraise battery by Exicom - which has caused lots of issues. So good job by Trontek.
But what if some cells fail? Will Okinawa dealers be able to provide quick service and turn around times? There is no such software updates planned by Trontek as revealed to us by the company.
Dealers say battery pack will be replaced. But it remains to be seen.
Okinawa/Trontek have not revealed the chemistry of the battery pack. We will take the middle ground and assume around 1000 cycles - which indicates that this pack can be used for 4 to 5 years.
Okinawa Claims range of 100 km on website, but we have found out with dealers and customers that it gives around 60-65 km in real world conditions. Okinawa is getting away by borderline making false claims, for example, when the Okinawa Praise scooter was launched they claimed 200 km per charge, but the real world range was around 90 km.
This can be misleading to customers as real world range is way different than range achieved in test conditions.
Okinawa's Eco App apparently shows battery information. This is something we could not test. But we have a contact of the customer, who has been using the scooter for 8 months, and he says his scooter has no such feature. We will update this article as and when we get some information.
The user needs to charge the removable battery using a 15 Amp socket and the battery will get charged in 2-3 hours from 0%.
 |  Image Credit - www.okinawascooters.com |
Performance
The Ridge+ accelerates smoothly like any electric scooter, with no hassles. Ashish never felt that he was lagging behind or had issues over taking slow moving traffic as you can see from the video. The scooter tops up at 54 kmph in our tests and even at low state of charge, we could achieve such speeds. Ofcourse once you hit 55 kmph, you see other vehicles overtaking you. That is the limitation of the hub motor and the controller design. The handling, stability, suspension and braking also seemed good.
The Ridge+ accelerates smoothly like any electric scooter, with no hassles. Ashish never felt that he was lagging behind or had issues over taking slow moving traffic as you can see from the video. The scooter tops up at 54 kmph in our tests and even at low state of charge, we could achieve such speeds. Ofcourse once you hit 55 kmph, you see other vehicles overtaking you. That is the limitation of the hub motor and the controller design. The handling, stability, suspension and braking also seemed good.
Final Thoughts
All in all Okinawa is using a great battery from Trontek, which makes this a decent scooter to own for local errands in city and the occasional use on highways. The build quality is above average and an improvement over electric scooters we have seen in the past. We don't like the fact that Okinawa mentions test conditions - range, instead of real world range.
But this is a great product by Okinawa and we would recommend it.
Do try the scooter and give us your thoughts on the model.
All in all Okinawa is using a great battery from Trontek, which makes this a decent scooter to own for local errands in city and the occasional use on highways. The build quality is above average and an improvement over electric scooters we have seen in the past. We don't like the fact that Okinawa mentions test conditions - range, instead of real world range.
But this is a great product by Okinawa and we would recommend it.
Do try the scooter and give us your thoughts on the model.
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