Ola Electric To Process Vehicle Registrations In-House To Cut Costs

Ola Electric Mobility Ltd. plans to process vehicle registrations in-house to cut costs, according to people with knowledge of the matter, even as the electric two-wheeler maker grapples with slower sales.

The Bengaluru-based EV firm has set up an in-house team to process vehicle registrations at one-fifth of the cost charged by vendor Rosmerta Digital Services Pvt. Ltd., people aware of the matter said on the condition of anonymity. While Rosmerta charged Rs 1,500-1,800 to register one EV, Ola Electric believes it can do so at Rs 300 or so.

But Ola Electric is yet to settle its dues of Rs 17-18 crore with Rosmerta.

Queries sent to Ola Electric and Rosmerta remained unanswered as of publishing this story.

The move assumes significance since Ola Electric could register only a third of the scooters it sold in February. The company, promoted by billionaire founder Bhavish Aggarwal, claimed to have sold 25,000 electric scooters last month, but only 8,390 of those were shown as registered on the government's VAHAN website.

The discrepancy is due to the renegotiation of contracts with Rosmerta and Shimnit India, which carried out vehicle registrations for the EV maker, as per an exchange filing on Feb. 19.

“As a result of these ongoing negotiations, the registration numbers for the month of February 2025, as reflected on the VAHAN portal, will be temporarily impacted, while there will be no change in sales.”

This effectively means Ola Electric would be registering around 42,000 units in March, even if sales remain stable at 25,000 units or so.

On Wednesday, Ola Electric shares rose 2.18% to Rs 57.17 apiece on the BSE even as the benchmark Sensex ended the day 1.01% higher at 73,730.23 points.