I am writing this review after 1 year usage of the Okinawa Praise scooter. It is a Lead Acid battery powered scooter. The current meter reading is 3500Km. It is not much for 1 year use, but I only use it to commute between office and home. For our family outings on weekends we use our car. Also the ongoing lockdowns have prevented few hundred Kms in distance covered.
As of now I have not faced any major issues. The battery backup looks a little down from what I used to get on new scooter. But still it goes 90-100 Kms without any major drop in power. After that the pickup and acceleration goes down, if not charged.
In this 1 year I have got it serviced 3 times. In the service they just do overall check of moveable parts, breaks, suspension etc and as it is a Lead Acid battery model the battery rotation is done to keep the batteries in good condition.
Talking about faults - I have faced problem with the Left-Right indicator switch twice. First time it got broken with a small rub by my leg. Not hard one. And second time it automatically stopped working. This is the only problem I have faced in hardware.
The major issue with Okinawa is after sales service. Their service center, looks like come cycle repair shop. On 2 times of 3 servicing, I have to face issue of non availability of technician. In 2019, July/August month the technician at service center went on 1 month long leave and there was no other person to help. I have to go there at least 2-3 times to get my scooter serviced.
Luckily I did not faced any major issues in Scooter, but I have met many people who were facing major issues like Battery not working, battery replacement, power switch not working etc. and they have to wait a whole month to get their scooters fixed.
During the lockdown the next service was due and since then whenever I try to contact the service center the number is switched off. This happened many times in past year. If someone picks my phone then I feel myself lucky. So I am again waiting for my scooter service since 2 month, and god forbid if a face any serious problem in the scooter then there is no one to fix it. I have also complained about it on twitter Okinawa handle, and they asked my mobile number also, but after that there is no contact from company side. And it is still in warranty.
I am passionate about EVs, and I love to try & own new technology and machines, but the company is busy only in the selling of scooter. They do not care a bit about their customers who have invested their hard earned money in these machines.
The scooter is very good, the built quality is also good, but the company needs to provide proper support for the customers. They are busy reducing the price, but I am willing to pay higher price if they can provide good service. This is the only biggest issue with Okinawa scooter for me.
