Ola Electric has big plans for the future. Be it their upcoming range of electric motorcycles or entering the stock market with the announcement of its IPO, Ola Electric will find itself in the headlines in multiple news reports in coming days. However, out of all the interesting developments for the Bengaluru–based EV startup, electric cars are not likely to be one of them.
According to a recent report by Reuters, the Softbank-backed company has suspended its electric car launch plans. The report says that the company wants to focus on its e-scooter business which has gained momentum in the past few months.
Ola’s founder and CEO, Bhavish Aggarwal, had laid out plans in 2022 to launch an electric sports car with an all-glass roof in two years that could reach 100 km per hour within four seconds. The car was supposed to offer a claimed range of 500 km on a single charge, and would boast a drag coefficient of 0.21cd. The company even showcased a concept of the same at a public event in August 2022.
There were rumours of Ola Electric backing out of the project last year, which made Aggarwal come out and reaffirm the commitment to those plans in an interview with Forbes in September 2023. The company had even filed patents for its first electric car which meant there were serious considerations regarding its implementation. However, two sources close to the project have confirmed to Reuters that the project is pretty much done and dusted.
Ola Electric Car: Why didn’t it materialise?
The main reason for Ola to back out of the electric car project is speculated to be the nascent stage of adoption of EVs, especially in the passenger vehicle segment. According to Reuters, in the first six months of 2024, around 483,000 e-scooters were sold in the country. At the same time, the period saw only about 45,000 electric cars sold across the country.
The company claims that the car project has been put on hold for at least two years as focus remains on two-wheeler sales and battery production. The transition to electric vehicles, growing competition from cheaper Chinese rivals and a weakening outlook for sales across major markets are weighing on automakers this year.
In 2022, Aggarwal said he would build a new plant within the same campus with capacity to manufacture 1 million electric cars a year. As per the report, Ola deployed external consultants and hired more than 100 employees for the project, adding that 30% of the team had now quit and some had been given new roles or projects.
However, this doesn’t mean that Ola will not at all look into manufacturing electric cars in the future. However, there’s a catch to it. The report says that as and when Ola revives the car project, it will focus on developing an affordable, mass market electric car, a departure from Aggarwal’s earlier plans to launch a premium electric sports car.
