The name Okinawa may sound Japanese, but Okinawa Scooters is a 100 per cent Indian electric two-wheeler manufacturing company, headquartered in Gurugram, near Delhi. And the Okinawa Praise is the second electric scooter from the company, introduced late last year. The Praise is the flagship electric scooter from Okinawa and boasts of several best-in-class features and performance, including a range of around 170 - 200 km on a single charge of the battery, and a top speed of 75 kmph. We spent some time riding the Okinawa Praise around New Delhi, to see what this new electric scooter offers.
The Okinawa Praise definitely looks good, and the front apron with the wide strip of lights incorporating the LED headlight flanked by the LED daytime running lights make an immediate impression.
The Okinawa Praise has an attractive face with a LED headlight flanked by DRLs
It's a long, full-sized scooter and is longer than the 125 cc Honda Grazia and even the new TVS NTorq 125. The Praise looks big, long and definitely has road presence, and we encountered several admiring people who had a few questions about pricing, range and so on.
The Okinawa Praise has a long list of features and boasts of quality components
Look closer, and the Praise rewards you with its long list of features, including the full-digital instrument console, USB charging port, cubbyholes to store a water bottle or two, and disc brakes on both front and rear wheels. The front disc brake employs two combined discs, with the caliper gripping both the smaller inner disc and a bigger outer disc. The front wheel is suspended from a hydraulic telescopic fork and the rear gets a pair of dual tube shocks. The underseat storage space is 19.5 litres, enough really to store a few knick knacks, and the charger (which by the way, takes up quite some space), but not enough to store a full face helmet.
In all, the Okinawa Praise certainly looks unique, and big, and has the qualities to make you take a second look, even if you're not shopping for scooters, and an electric one at that!
The Okinawa Praise feels quick, quicker than any other electric two-wheeler we have ridden
It's an electric, so there's no noise, just a quiet electric hum which is barely audible in traffic. And that may be the key to you bragging about zero emissions and all, but India still has to warm up to the concept of soundless two-wheelers. And, when there's no noise, no sound, anyone can jaywalk in front of you, even when they see you coming, and other two-wheeler riders will make sudden turns in front of you, so you have to be on the horn a lot, contemplating the other motorist, or pedestrian's next move. It's a bummer, but not a deal breaker. You soon enough get used to the soundless way the electric scoot moves.
Digital speedometer quickly gets to speed, thanks to the Sport mode and the 'Turbo' button
The Praise is quick, quicker than any electric scooter we've ridden so far, and the digital speedometer quickly climbs the numbers. There are two modes - Economy and Sport, with Economy offering better range but less power. The Sport mode naturally offers quicker acceleration, up to about a speedo-indicated 60 kmph. On the left handlebar, there's also a 'turbo' button, but don't be fooled into believing it's turbocharged, it just gives you a surge of more electric power which will see the speedo reaching out from over 60 kmph to an indicated 74 kmph during our test runs. So far, so good, and seems to be fast enough for the daily commute or even a quick dash to the suburbs. And a claimed range of more than 150 km (actually 170-200 km claimed range) will leave you without any worry of running out of charge.
The Okinawa Praise isn't really as quick as it feels initially
But ride it for some time and when the morning traffic starts picking up, 70 kmph on the Praise's speedo doesn't seem fast enough; in fact, even 60 kmph on the speedo seems a lot slower than it is. A quick comparison with our support vehicle, and a peek into the speedometers of a couple of commuter motorcycles confirmed our doubts. The speedometer on the Praise is, well, a little too optimistic, and is off by more than 10 kmph from the actual speed. So, we doubt if the claimed 75 kmph top speed is actually achievable. In reality, 60-62 kmph top speed is more like the actual top speed.
A GPS speed test revealed the speedometer reading has a more than 10 kmph error margin
In fact, when we tested the actual speed with a GPS based app, our suspicions were confirmed and the actual speed was quite less than the indicated speed. In reality though, 60-65 kmph is good enough for a city runaround, especially for an electric scooter, so the Praise is quicker than other electric scooters, but it's not as fast as it's claimed to be.
As long as you're riding on smooth roads, like most of the roads during our test ride, the Praise offered a smooth ride, mostly. It's only when you hit a few undulations on the road, or some joints on a flyover, the scooter jolts and bucks, despite the flashy looking suspension at both ends. Ride quality certainly leaves a lot to be desired, especially when the going gets rough. The Okinawa Praise's bouncy ride quality will make you re-think if it's the ideal ride for our road conditions, particularly when the current crop of scooters with internal combustion engines have changed the game many times over in terms of handling and performance. For an electric, it's still acceptable, but to really change the game in the scooter segment (electric or otherwise), the Praise needs a better, more comfortable ride.
The Okinawa Praise has comfortable ride quality over smooth roads
The footboard is on the taller side, so the rider feels cramped, since you have to bend your legs a little too much. It's not excruciatingly uncomfortable, but definitely not a desirable riding position. Handling is neutral, and for most users, the Praise will not be much of a disappointment in that department. But again, when you compare other scooters in that same price bracket, the Okinawa Praise doesn't 'wow' you with its handling or give you the confidence to push the scooter around a corner. The MRF rubber is grippy enough, but the brakes need some fine tuning. Under hard braking, the rear locks up too soon resulting in a slight skid and the front lacks the bite or progression to shave off speed.
The riding position is cramped and the high footboard makes it uncomfortable
The Okinawa Praise is priced at Rs. 65,000 (ex-showroom) and that makes it slightly more expensive than several new and popular internal combustion engine (ICE) scooters like the Honda Grazia, TVS NTorq 125 and even the Suzuki Access 125. Of course, the biggest USP of the Praise is that it's electric - so running costs will be far less than a conventional ICE scooter, and it's clean and green with zero emissions. If those are qualities you're looking for in your choice of wheels, the Okinawa Praise certainly deserves a close look and consideration.
Despite its shortcomings, the Okinawa Praise still offers very good value as a capable electric scooter
Our test ride involved riding the scooter for more than 80 km in and around the city, and the battery level indicator still showed three-fourths of charge left, so we guess, the Praise will easily offer more than 100 km of range on a single charge. Charging time still takes about 7-8 hours, but an optional quick charger (costing around Rs. 3,000) may reduce that amount of time to 2 hours to fully charge the Praise for use. It's still one of the best electric scooters on sale in India right now, but the game is going to change soon with bigger players with years of manufacturing experience and expertise entering the electric scooter space. Till that happens, in a year or two, the Okinawa Praise is now one of the best electric scooters you can buy, despite its shortcomings.
