Ola Electric In 2025: How A Market Leader Ran Out Of Spark

If there is one indicator to sum up Ola Electric’s year so far, it would be its share price, which has spiralled 57% (as of December 5, 2025) to INR 36.12 since January 1, 2025. The EV maker, which not too long ago commanded a market capitalisation of $5.4 Bn, has shrunk to an m-cap of roughly $1.7 Bn. 

So, what happened to Ola Electric, the early mover in India’s two-wheeler EV revolution? Why was it seen losing steam in 2025, when rivals like Ather, TVS, and Bajaj were clearly making a headway, zooming past the OG EV maker?  

To understand this, let’s look at how 2025 unfolded for the EV maker — the breakthroughs it achieved, the major wins it scored and the areas where it fell short. 

Our analysis reveals that Ola Electric’s year so far has been marked by regulatory setbacks, reputational damage, operational breakdowns, revenue contraction, product delays, and strategic zigzags, which have collectively dragged the company down.  

Besides, persistent poor after-sales services, an intensifying CCPA investigation, falling operating revenue, and declining sales numbers remained the top highlights for Ola Electric during the year and the full extent of its troubles is far from over. 

• Nearly 70% of stores in Maharashtra were allegedly operating without trade licenses
• There were several discrepancies in its reported sales figures
• A fundraise within a year of its IPO, with no clarity on capital allocation
• LG’s allegation of stealing its battery technology 
• Repeatedly missed timelines for commercialising its battery pack and two-wheeler deliveries
• Alleged toxic work culture and employee death

On an individual level, each of these issues was sufficient to shake end users’ confidence in the company. Result? Once the undisputed leader in India’s EV two-wheeler landscape, Ola Electric now accounts for barely 7% of the market, ranking fifth, according to VAHAN data.

What Broke Ola Electric’s Growth Engine? 

Ola Electric’s two-wheeler business is currently characterised by regulatory scrutiny, unhappy customers and a rapid erosion of its market share. However, the Bhavish Aggarwal-led EV maker had it coming. 

The most pressing challenge of the year came from the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA), which intensified its investigation after receiving over 10,000 complaints in a single year. These complaints ranged from consumer rights violations and misleading ads to refund disputes and persistent service failures. By October 2025, Ola had received a formal investigation report and was called in for a hearing. 

Despite CEO Bhavish Aggarwal’s repeated assurances that ‘service issues are behind us’, public sentiment tells a different story. A quick scan of social media still reveals a steady stream of unresolved complaints.

Physical assessments at service centres paint an even grimmer picture — overwhelmed facilities, a backlog of vehicles left unattended for weeks, cramped parking yards, and a workforce unable to match the pace at which Ola scaled its sales. 

The service network expanded more slowly than vehicle volumes, a structural mismatch that ultimately led to a reputational disaster. 

In Goa, service failures triggered mass protests, compelling state authorities to consider punitive measures, including suspending licences, earlier this month. 

Delivery delays further eroded customer trust. 

Then, it quietly discontinued its affordable scooter range, the Ola Gig and S1 Z, even though they had been launched just a year earlier. 

Instead, Ola said it would focus on the Ola Roadster e-bike. Ironically, the Roadster was postponed three times before its eventual launch in May. 

“In the automotive world, you go to make one product great before entering into a new product. They should have perfected the scooter first before entering the bike market,” said Deb Mukherjee, an automotive industry veteran. 

Moving on, the company’s attempts to address service issues haven’t delivered meaningful results to date. The much-publicised one-day service guarantee largely failed to meet real-world demands, forcing Ola to pivot again by opening its HyperService platform, enabling customers to purchase genuine spare parts instead. 

The commercial consequences have been significant. 

Ola revised its FY26 sales guidance from 3.25 Lakh-3.75 Lakh units to 2.2 Lakh units in Q1 FY26. Delivery projections for the second half of the fiscal year were cut to around 1 Lakh, indicating a strategic shift away from hyper-growth and towards margin protection. 

This led to a downward revision of its full-year (FY26) revenue guidance from INR 4,200 – 4,700 Cr to INR 3,000 – INR 3,200 Cr in Q1 FY25.

Meanwhile, competitors surged ahead. Vahan data shows that Ola’s market share has shrunk to 7% from 18.7% in the same period last year. Ola Electric now ranks fifth in the two-wheeler EV race, trailing behind Ather, Bajaj, TVS, and Hero.

The Battery Bet That Is Yet To Deliver

Parallely, Ola Electric attempted to double down on building indigenous batteries. The company faltered yet again due to aggressive targets and a lack of operational discipline.

The company’s gigafactory timeline is a prime illustration of this.

• In early FY25, Ola launched phase 1A of its gigafactory with 1.5 GWh capacity, projecting:
  • 5 GWh by October 2025
  • 20 GWh in subsequent phases
• By Q4 FY25, the 5 GWh target was postponed to early FY27.
• By Q1 FY26, the deadline shifted again — 5 GWh by the end of FY26, and 20 GWh not before FY29.
• Now, in Q2 FY26, the company intends to scale its capacity to 5.9 GWh by the end of FY26, and further to 20 GWh by the second half of 2027.

Such frequent resets signalled uncertainty, not progress. It leads to questions about the viability of OLA’s PLI benefits, with reports suggesting the company might miss critical milestones tied to incentives.

Commercialisation of Ola’s indigenous battery packs, too, got delayed. Aggarwal had promised that Ola scooters would run on in-house cells by early 2025, the reality states otherwise.

The ARAI certification of the 4680 Bharat Cell was secured only last month, and deliveries of S1 Pro+ vehicles with the new battery pack began in December.

Complicating matters further, a South Korean media outlet alleged that a former LG Energy Solution executive tried to leak proprietary battery technology to Ola. 

While Ola has rejected the charges, the episode feeds the perception that the company was falling short of its promises and leaning too much on narrative rather than substance.

The battery vertical, envisioned as Ola’s long-term moat, instead exposed its operational overstretch. Taken together, these had a negative impact on the company’s stock price. 

“It is the customers’ reviews that have created negativity towards the company’s stock. The stock has fallen below the important moving average. This means more people are thinking of selling rather than holding. I think this is likely how it will stay,” said Rupak De, senior technical analyst at LKP Securities. He added that investors should put a stop loss of INR 39. 

A Leap Beyond Mobility

In what could be one of the most unexpected turns of the year, Ola Electric ventured beyond automotive and into the residential energy storage market, with Ola Shakti, an inverter-like system for home backup.

The timing has raised many eyebrows. Just one quarter earlier, Ola had the immediate intention of scaling its battery capacity beyond 20 GWh before FY29. With the launch of Shakti, the company suddenly projected reaching 20 GWh by the second half of 2027. This dramatic acceleration appears to be a pursuit to offset declining scooter sales. 

Aggarwal sees FY26 as a ‘transition year’, framing energy as Ola’s next growth engine. He projects INR 100 Cr revenue from the energy segment by Q4 FY26 and INR 1,200 Cr by FY27.

Given Ola Electric’s trajectory, these projections are being met with scepticism.

“Battery technology is a complex area, and companies take decades to master it. It is difficult to believe a company has come up with battery technology within just two years, and now Ola wants to power your home,” said Mukherjee. 

Aggarwal is pitching his residential battery solution to investors, which could be a signal that the scooter business is losing its spark.

Yet, the challenges in this space are immense. Players like Exide and Amara Raja dominate the Indian battery storage market, and these companies have robust finances, deep trust capital, extensive distribution networks, and strong after-sales infrastructure.

Ola, on the other hand, is building from scratch at a time when its balance sheet is already strained. Additionally, lead-acid batteries largely dominate residential backup solutions in India, and Ola is attempting to sell premium lithium-ion systems priced between INR 29,000 and INR 1,59,999, which is significantly above the mass-market affordability. 

Given the credibility crisis stemming from its EV operations, persuading consumers to trust Ola with home energy systems could prove to be an uphill battle for Aggarwal.

However, despite the setbacks, the year wasn’t entirely bleak for Ola Electric. The company unveiled its Gen 3 platform, which it says offers higher energy efficiency and improved safety validation, advancements that it expects will reduce warranty expenses over time. 

Additionally, integrating its in-house battery packs into vehicles is projected to strengthen unit economics. Ola also anticipates its Hyperpure vertical to evolve into a high-margin business, providing a fresh tailwind amid an otherwise challenging year. 

Last month, the company also received certification for a rare-earth-free ferrite motor, meaning it can now develop the motor in-house, thus eliminating the dependency on imported rare-earth material components.

All in all, Ola Electric’s struggles in 2025 reflect eroding trust, repeated execution lapses and wavering strategic focus. Can Ola stage a comeback in 2026?

Edited By Shishir Parasher