Bhavish Aggarwal sets bold targets on I-Day fifth year in a row, but delivery remains patchy. Here's Ola's track record

Mint

2 days ago

Mumbai: Bhavish Aggarwal-led Ola Electric, which makes key product and strategy announcements on the eve of Independence Day every year, on Friday said the company is eyeing a new motorcycle called Diamondhead by mid-2027 that would 'revolutionize" the industry, even as it grapples with missed targets, scaled-down ambitions and a volatile stock since its debut last year.
The company aims to deck the motorcycle with its in-house artificial intelligence (AI) chips, battery cells, airbags and new materials, with a target price of ₹5 lakh. Aggarwal called the motorcycle, which was first showcased as a concept two years ago, Ola Electric's new moonshot project.
'We showed you a concept two years ago. Many people thought it would remain a concept. But here it is – it has become a prototype now," a white kurta-clad Aggarwal said at an event at Ola Electric's factory at Krishnagiri in Tamil Nadu on Friday.
While the markets will price the announcements into the company's stock on Monday, Ola's record of delivering on its 15 August promises and ambitions over the past four years has been patchy. The company achieved some of its targets, albeit with significant delays, but it has also abandoned or scaled down many others.
For instance, a determined Aggarwal made a bold pitch in his first Independence Day announcements in 2021 that Ola Electric would lead an EV-revolution, phasing out the sale of new petrol two-wheelers from India by 2025. In fiscal year 2025 (FY25), petrol two-wheelers continued to rule the roost, with electric vehicles accounting for just 5.8% of all two-wheeler sales.
However, Ola Electric did lead the pack in electrification of two-wheelers, accounting for almost 30% of the 1.1 million such vehicles sold in FY25.
In August 2022, the company promised to set up a battery innovation centre to make the cells that power its vehicles in-house. The centre was built in time and, despite some delays, the company has managed to start the production of its 4680 Bharat Cell by April this year.
But the company is yet to ship any vehicles fitted with these cells, running several months behind schedule. On Friday, Aggarwal said that deliveries of Ola scooters fitted with in-house cells will start by late September.
Some of Aggarwal's promises were too ambitious to even partly deliver. For instance, he promised in his 2022 address that the company will have an electric car by 2024. The project has been put on indefinite hold.
The company also scaled down some of its ambitions. For instance, it said in August 2024 that it would ramp up the annual cell production capacity to 20 gigawatts by 2026 and 100 gigawatts by 2030. However, the plan was later scaled down. Now the company will keep its cell manufacturing capacity - starting at 1 gigawatt this fiscal - limited to 5 gigawatts till at least 2029.
On Friday, Ola also unveiled India's first indigenously developed ferrite motor that uses no rare-earth magnets, which will help it overcome the crisis triggered by China restricting its export of rare-earth magnets. These magnets are crucial for making motors for EVs. The motors will power Ola's vehicles starting from the third quarter of fiscal year 2026 (Q3FY26), the company claimed.
The integration of cells, motors and other key components in-house helps the company eke out better margins, Aggarwal said. 'I want to tell the street that we are making a lot of money from these products. The advantage of doing all these technologies in-house is that we make a lot of margins."
Other key announcements on Friday include the launch of S1 Pro Sport, the most powerful Ola scooter till date. Deliveries are planned to start next January.
The company did not give any significant updates on its AI and chip-making plans, which were one of the key highlights from Ola's independence day announcements last year.
The runup to this year's Ola Sankalp 2025 was a period of uncertainties for the start up. In February, the company terminated the contracts of two of its registration agencies, which led to a backlog of more than 16,000 vehicles for registrations, leading to delays in deliveries.
The company was taken to the National Company Law Tribunal by one of the agencies, following which Ola settled the issue with the agencies.
Since then, the company has been handling the registration process on its own. The delay in registrations and discrepancy of sales data with the government's Vahan data led to two ministries – heavy industries and road transport & highways – asking tough questions of the company.
Amid all this, customer complaints against Aggarwal's company continued to appear on social media platforms due to service issues.
Addressing servicing issues was made tough by state authorities in big markets like Maharashtra acting against the stores of the company. Last month, Maharashtra ordered shuttering of around 90% of the stores in the state owing to lack of trade certificates. The company denied receiving any such notification.
The series of events that unfolded in the first eight months of this year has wiped out more than 50% of the company's share value. The Ola Electric stock, which listed on 7 August 2024, has touched a high of ₹157.53 and a low of ₹39.58 since then, compared to its offer price of ₹76 per share. It closed 2% higher on Thursday at ₹41.32.