Ola Electric’s Escooter Sales Decline After Change In Payment Model: Report

Bhavish Aggarwal-led Ola Electric’s escooter sales have reportedly declined during the past two weeks, with the startup selling just 130-200 units per day. 

The decline in sales started after the electric mobility startup switched from multiple-payment window model to one-time full payment for its escooters, sources aware of the matter told The Economic Times. 

As per the report, earlier, customers could make part payments through four separate windows that opened on specific dates. However, Ola Electric moved to the new payment model on May 28. 

Sources told the publication that Ola Electric was able to sell about 500 escooters per day for three-four days after moving away from the multiple-payment window model. However, sales started declining after that.

“The company has also offered employees around INR 10,000 discount if they are interested in buying the scooter,” the report said. It also quoted sources as saying that some customers receiving escooters in 48 hours could hint at its shrinking order book.

Ola Electric’s total vehicle sales in May declined 27.3% month-on-month (MoM) to 9,230 units, as per Vahan data. With just six days left for the end of June, the startup has sold 4,917 units of vehicles in the month so far. 

Its total vehicle sales in 2022 stand at 41,024 units, according to the latest data on Vahan dashboard. On the other hand, Ola Electric aims to produce 10 Mn escooters a year.

Meanwhile, the startup has been in a negative light for some time, which got triggered after its Ola S1 Pro scooters caught fire in Pune earlier in March. The incident was followed by the accident of a Guwahati man who claimed to get injured due to a fault in the Ola S1 Pro scooter’s regenerative braking system. The incident invited considerable mud-slinging. However, Ola Electric had concluded that the accident took place due to the vehicle overspeeding. 

Meanwhile, Ola Electric is also planning to soon launch its electric four-wheeler. While talking about the startup’s journey so far and its future endeavours, founder and CEO Aggarwal revealed the look of its upcoming electric car in a sneak peek video at one of its events recently.

Ola Electric is also in talks with multiple global suppliers to build a battery cell manufacturing plant in India that would have a capacity of up to 50-gigawatt (Gwh) hours.