Okinawa I-Praise First Ride Review

Design and Styling of Okinawa I-Praise

Not much has changed on the looks front. The scooter carries over the design and graphics from the Praise. The seat gets a white border on the sides, which was not seen on the Praise scooter. The ground clearance and seat height have gone up slightly. Okinawa has increased the ground clearance from 170mm to 175mm and the seat height from 774mm to 800mm. Do not worry, your feet should still reach the ground and the scooter is not too daunting for shorter people. The instrument cluster is completely digital and shows you things like your speed, distance covered, boost level, charge level, trip meter and time. There is a handy amount of storage space at the front and a USB charging port is also present for convenient charging of devices like your phone. But that is all the storage space you get as almost the entirety of the underseat compartment is occupied by the two lithium-ion batteries. The company was using lead acid batteries in the Praise but has shifted to lithium-ion batteries for the I-Praise. Additionally, these batteries are detachable and are easier to charge. Using the supplied charger, once can charge a completely drained battery in 2-3 hours. The batteries work in a slave-master configuration – one battery is connected to the other.

Connectivity Features of Okinawa I-Praise

The scooter also boasts of smartphone connectivity via the Okinawa Eco App. Currently the app is only available for Android users but an iPhone compatible version should appear soon. Once downloaded, users can get a host of information related to their scooter right on their smartphone screen. You can see things like the vehicle status, crash reports, charge level etc. The app also allows you to geo-fence the scooter and set speed limits. Through geo-fencing, users will be notified if their scooter goes beyond the predetermined radius. The app also has an SOS button which sends a message and the scooter location to any of your desired contacts. Finding the I-Praise will hardly be a problem ever as the app also allows you to track the location of the scooter.

Ride and Handling of Okinawa I-Praise

We found the ride quality and characteristics of the I-Praise similar to that of Praise. That is hardly a surprise considering that both scooters get a 1000W BLDC motor. The scooter has two riding modes, E (Economy) and S (Speed). The E mode is meant for energy efficient rides around the city. Here the top speed is limited to 35kmph, although a lighter person could push the scooter beyond that. The S mode unleashes the full power of the scooter allowing it to climb a little beyond 72kmph. Then you have the Turbo button on the left side, which boosts the scooter’s acceleration for a short while. The scooter is definitely fun to ride in the S mode and even with two people on the scooter.

In terms of range, the scooter has a rated range of 160-180km per charge but that drops down to a more conservative 120-140km in real world riding. The scooter is shod with 90/90 12-inches tyres that are decent for this scooter and lend it enough grip to tackle everyday city roads. Okinawa has fitted disc brakes on both wheels along with electronic ABS. However, in our testing we still found the rear wheel locking up if you brake suddenly. You can opt to have a big or a small disc brake on the front wheel, in case you want to have extra, if unnecessary, braking power. The suspension is a bit stiff but not unbearable.

Verdict