Ola Electric Hires EY For The Second Time In Less Than Six Months
Ola Electric had in October 2024 hired EY for service overhaul but severed ties in two months over a disagreements with founder Bhavish Aggarwal.
Ola Electric Mobility Ltd. has hired EY for the second time in less than six months — this time to strengthen its expanded distribution network.
The Bengaluru-based electric two-wheeler maker is doing away with warehouses to adopt a direct-to-store retail model, according to people aware of the matter. Now scooters, spare parts and accessories will be shipped directly from the factory to stores. The move is aimed at faster delivery to customers and better inventory management.
It’s worth mentioning here that Ola Electric has launched HyperDelivery for same-day registration and delivery of its electric scooters.
Towards this end, EY will help Ola Electric achieve regional compliance, the people said. They refused to be named as the matter is still private. An Ola Electric spokesperson refused to comment on the matter.
To be sure, EY has had previous associations with Ola Electric.
Ola Electric had hired EY India in October 2024 to fix its service-related woes that had begun surfacing at the time, ET had reported. However, the consultants were fired in two months over a disagreement with Founder-billionaire Bhavish Aggarwal, people aware of that matter said. Most of the time, Bhavish starts feeling that he does not need the consultant, and that he is overpaying, one of the persons said.
EY’s rehiring comes at a time when Ola Electric is facing investigations from at least two central government ministries over a mismatch in sales figures for February.
Separately, its stores across the country are being raided for lack of trade certificates—a mandatory document to operate a dealership in India. In Maharashtra, 300-350 Ola Electric stores were found to be sharing one trade certificate among themselves, State Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik told NDTV Profit during an interaction on April 5.
In December 2024, Ola Electric claimed to have expanded its dealership network to 4,000 stores with co-located service centres to improve the after-sales experience.
