Ola Electric is on the “firing” line once again. The Bengaluru-based electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing startup finds itself in the news regularly, for wrong reasons more often than not. In a recent development, Ola Electric is reportedly planning to lay off over 1000 payroll employees and contract workers to reduce its losses. However, there has been no official confirmation by Ola Electric on the same.
Layoff at Ola
According to a Bloomberg report, the SoftBank Group Corp.-backed firm will cut jobs across various departments including procurement, fulfillment, customer relations and charging infrastructure. This isn’t the first time that Ola is about to conduct mass firing in its organisation.
Earlier in November, unverified reports claimed that the company kicked out 500 employees. This round of layoffs is expected to affect more than a quarter of Ola’s workforce, which totaled 4,000 employees as of March 2024. More recently, Ola Electric reported a 50 percent increase in losses for the December quarter. This came after the company went public and got itself listed at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) last year.
Shares of Ola Electric have plunged over 60% from its peak since its IPO debut in August last year. This has been attributed to multiple factors like reports of its electric scooters catching fire or breaking surfacing from across the country, unhappy consumers filing complaints, and social media backlash over poor service quality.
As part of the restructuring, Ola is automating aspects of its customer relations operations, sources said. The layoff plans may be adjusted over time based on business requirements. The report further mentions that front-end sales, service and warehouse staff at Ola’s showrooms and service centers are also being let go as the company revamps its logistics and delivery strategy to curb costs.
Ola Electric Feb 2025 developments
In February 2025, Ola Electric reported selling over 25,000 units, capturing a 28% market share—significantly below the 50,000-unit monthly target set by CEO Bhavish Aggarwal during an earnings call earlier this year. The lower-than-expected sales underscore the company’s ongoing struggles to regain stability in a highly competitive market.
Last month Ola Electric launched its first electric motorcycle, the Roadster X, starting from Rs 74,999, ex-showroom. The Bengaluru-based EV manufacturing startup has confirmed that the deliveries will begin from March. The Roadster X series is available in three variants — X for Rs 74,999, X+ 4.5 kWh for Rs 1,04,99 and X+ 9.1 kWh for Rs 1,54,999, all ex-showroom prices.
Source: Bloomberg
