Growth and fluctuations of the Indian pioneer EV Ola

Once it was a brilliant Indian startup star, but Ola is now fighting with many crises.

Founded in 2010, it quickly became a home name, expanding from a trip to electric cars and battery cells, challenging Uber.

The company jumped on AI Bandwagon in 2023 with Krutrim, the first in the Indian company AI worth more than $ 1 billion.

Global Global Investors, such as SoftBank in Japan, American Tiger Global and Singapore’s Temasek, earned this extension. Last year, ARM ARM ARM ARM (EV) rose to almost 734 million dollars (£ 567) in the initial public blockbuster’s public stock (IPO), the largest in India in 2024.

But this ambitious rise was accompanied by a number of disputes recently, especially on his hand.

Seven months after launch, IPO Ola Electric lost almost 70% of the cost. It faces competition from more established two -wheeled giants, as well as enhancement of regulation.

Sales of OLA scooters have been reduced to less than half of April last year, and the company’s loss has expanded. Customers have posted video on Ola Scooters social networks that rise into the flames or break in the middle.

In the hundreds of recent open OLA exhibition halls, a government investigation into licenses and registrations is conducted. One of his suppliers also applied for insolvency against the company, which Ola stated in a statement on the stock exchanges that he resolved.

The BBC learned from former employees and industry sources that the delay of payments led to many major suppliers and logistics partners that stop with them.

OLA reduces work, restructuring and automated functions, trying to reduce costs and cut losses. The media reports say that since November they have held a second round of layoffs, with more than 1000 roles.

The BBC has sent details in OLA on these issues. The company shared links to some previous statements in the press without responding to all requests.

So, what went wrong?

Ola Bhavish Aggarwal CEO posted a company as a two -wheeled Tesla equivalent, solving the problem of emissions into the Indian market sensitive.

It has poured millions of marketing dollars, opening Ola salons across India, even delivering scooters on the doorstep of people who did online.

But Ola tried to read the market well, says Rokhit Parade, analyst The Auto Magazine Overdrive.

Its scooter is modeled on AppScooter from Etergo, the Dutch startup, which Ola Electric acquired in 2020.

Several former employees have informed the BBC that the first EV Scooter Ola was launched without numerous changes in the Etergo version. The former employee who worked in the requirements department told the BBC that the registrations had been postponed to perform unreal launch terms.

In response to Ola’s requests referred to October 2023 Message in the blog Where he turned to the “myth” that the vehicle was not developed and tested to India. ” It states that he “completely refurbished” Etergo scooter and tested it on “Indian conditions”.

“The whole vehicle was checked at three levels (for India) – digital simulations, components tests and tests in the car laboratory, as well as car tests,” the report said.

But several security incidents, which clients reported, raised questions.

Some scooters started catching a fire, which, according to the experts, was probably associated with a short circuit or defective battery control system.

In 2022, Ola resembled more than 1,400 first -generation scooters to investigate the fires, but the report was not publicly released. He then stated that the battery systems met Indian and European standards, but did not explain what caused the fires.

Some riders also reported the front suspension – holding the wheel in place – breaking the middle, causing injuries.

In early 2023, after such an accident, Ola called it a rare thing, noting that there were only a few problems among 150,000 scooters.

According to them, the front fork had a significant security stock for accidents and was designed to handle 80% more load than what usually feels during daily use.

Meanwhile, the rivals Ola – mostly created automakers – smoothly rolled out electrical scooters, adding pressure on the company.

Their entry staggered the market. By December, the OLA share dumped from 52% to 19%, then recovered to 25% in January.

OLA seeks to sell 50,000 units a month to become profitable, but analysts doubt the targets, despite the fact that the company stated that recent restructuring has helped it achieve a monthly savings of $ 10 million and faster delivered.

Government data show that in February less than 10,000 scooters were sold, but OLA claims that 25,000 accused of registration delays from changing the supplier’s contracts. The Federal Ministry of Transport has issued reports of inconsistency. Ola said it registered more than 23,000 scooters sold in March and ranked 30% of the market for the financial year.

But competing scooters with fewer features are now selling OLA simply because they come from trusted, well-established brands, Jay Kale said, executive vice president and Elara Capital automotive analyst.

To push sales, OLA offered deep discounts, running new models at cheaper prices. But the losses increased to $ 65 million in the October-December quarter with $ 43.6 MA per year.

In addition to the product problems, the reliability of its customer service has become another major issue, Kale says.

When angry customers flooded social media and consumer phones with fires and front suspension, their requests for services were reported to be unanswered.

At one point, thousands of complaints were collected monthly, the former OLA employee said. The Indian Consumer Rights Agency, the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA), also sent a message to OLA after 10,000 complaints have received 10,000 in a year.

But since Ola evaded the installed dealer, trying to sell directly to the buyers and had only a few service centers, the affected consumers had several places that can be addressed.

At the end of last year, Ola wrote CCPA that she had a “reliable mechanism to eliminate complaints”, and that most of the regulator was resolved satisfactorily.

Initially, Agarwal abandoned the problems in social media, but later announced that OLA would open nearly 4,000 stores with services, after a hot public exchange on X with a stand-up comedian that took the case of customers.

However, most of these new centers came under the government scanner for lack of relevant possession and sale of vehicles.

On March 21, Ola confirmed the investigations in four states and stated that she was responding to the authorities.

A sharp turn at the Olya station makes investors – especially those who have bought highly nervous IPO estimates.

Ola was a key player in India to reduce carbon emissions and expand production.

This benefits from two separate state subsidies that make scooters and the other is a battery plant with 20 Gigawatt EV. But Reuters has report that the expensive Gigafactory project is delayed and missed the key milestone, which potentially leads to fines.

Critics say OLA problems follow the typical problems of culture suffering from many startups, including decisions guided by general directors, constant turns and high pressure.

“Software thinking does not work with equipment that needs time for construction,” said Deepsh Rathore, who previously headed the Ola Electric Product Strategy and now manages the Insight EV consulting firm.

Some leading executives have left recently, including former Ola Cab CEO, who threw for months. Basic leaders in technology, marketing, sales and business have also left last year.

Experts say the outputs also influenced the efforts of OLA on solving products and services.

Keep up the BBC News India Instagram. YouTube, X and Facebook is Facebook at Facebook..