Is the Okinawa Praise really made-in-India?

• Published On: 27 December 2017
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The Okinawa promises to be the country’s speediest and most high-tech e-scooter but looks extremely similar to a Chinese scooter made by Luyuan.

Okinawa is an Indian company that was formed in 2015. The company’s main office is in Gurgaon and the factory is set up in Bhiwadi, Rajasthan. The manufacturer has been selling its single product, an e-scooter called the Ridge, which we found to be one of the most regular feeling e-scooters in India.

Now, the e-scooter maker has unveiled its second offering, a speedier e-scooter called the Praise, this scooter promises impressive performance and a top speed of 75kph and range of 170-200km. The manufacturer suggests that the Praise is a fully in-house developed offering. The company was quoted saying that “Complete vehicle design and component design by Okinawa, including a Li-ion battery for which Okinawa applied for a patent”. But, we found an almost identical scooter that is currently on sale from Luyuan – a 20 year-old Chinese manufacturer with a line-up of two-wheelers on offer.

The particular scooter is called the Luyuan Rong Wei MNR-DAS7220-Z7. It has the identical bodywork, front and rear suspension setup with external canisters, and it even has the distinguishable front disc brake setup where a standard disc is surrounded by another wheel-rim-mounted disc. Moreover, the electric motor appears to have the same spec too.

To answer our doubts, we contacted Okinawa for more information. The manufacturer denied all of the above and stated that is Luyuan is a component supplier for some controller units used in the Praise and that the e-scooter is otherwise a true Okinawa product. We hope that Okinawa will shed some further light on this as customers deserve to know the facts about the products they’re buying.