Ola sees record bookings for its electric scooter

After opening pre-booking for its electric scooter on July 15, Ola Electric Mobility said that the platform saw one lakh reservations within the first 24 hours. 

The website also faced multiple glitches due to failure to generate invoice and the site crashing.  

Chairman and group CEO of Ola, Bhavish Aggarwal later said that the platform did not anticipate the demand and was restored later. Pre-booking for the vehicle is priced at Rs 499. 

“The unprecedented demand is a clear indicator of shifting consumer preferences to EVs. This is a huge step forward in our mission to transition the world to sustainable mobility. I thank all the consumers who have booked the Ola Scooter and have joined the EV revolution. This is only the beginning,” Aggarwal said in a statement. 

Ola hasn’t disclosed the price of the vehicle. “It will be priced aggressively to make it widely accessible. Ola will reveal the features and price in the coming days,” said the statement issued by the company.  

Ola Electric Mobility is the electric vehicles division of the ride-hailing company. The e-scooter will be the vertical’s first EV and will be manufactured at the company’s facility Ola Futurefactory in Tamil Nadu which was set up in March. The company, in its statement, said that the first phase of the Futurefactory will be operational soon, with an initial capacity of 20 lakh vehicles per annum. At full capacity, the facility will be able to produce 1 crore vehicles per annum by 2022.  

Ola has also raised $100 million long-term debt financing from Bank of Baroda for building the first phase of its Futurefactory. Apart from this, the company also raised $500 million pre-IPO round from Temasek and Warburg Pincus earlier this month. The investment in ANI Holdings, the parent company of Ola will be used for scaling its business across new categories and geographies. 

Founded in 2010 by Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati, Ola’s cab-hailing business has been hit by pandemic. Its foray into the EV segment will take on competitors such as electric scooter maker Ather, as well as two-wheeler maker TVS Motor Company which has announced its foray into the EV space.