Why Ola Electric scooters continue to break

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Editor's note: On a warm November afternoon, Soumo Bakshi picked up his daughter from school and the two were on their way home. The 11 km drive between the school and home is a quiet stretch, mostly good with some rough patches, like most roads in Bengaluru. With about 3-4 km to go, Bakshi felt the front wheel of his Ola S1 Pro wobble. Before he could stop the scooter, the suspension unit broke. The front wheel buckled and came under the scooter. His daughter bumped into him from behind and Bakshi’s chest hit the handlebar as they fell to the ground. “I have no clue how it happened,” says Bakshi over the phone. “We used to take that same route daily since I got the scooter in January 2022. We were riding at 35-40 kmph and didn’t hit a pothole or a rough patch. Ola even confirmed this from its vehicle telemetry system.”  Shaken by the accident, he called Ola Electric’s customer service. After some effort, he was able to put his point across. In about an hour, the company sent …