- Ola Electric plans to resume new product launches as operations and sales improve this year
- The company paused launches to focus on service stability and cost control amid repair delays
- Motorcycle sales, especially in northern India, now account for about 15% of Ola’s volumes
Ola Electric Mobility Ltd. plans to restart new product launches this year after slowing rollouts while it worked through service and operational issues, founder Bhavish Aggarwal said during the company's earnings call on Tuesday.
The company had paused fresh launches as it focused on stabilising customer service operations, reducing repair backlogs and tightening costs after a period of complaints around delays and spare-part availability.
"We decided we will not launch new products till our volumes get back up because we wanted to be more disciplined on new capital allocation for new products," Aggarwal said.
He said Ola now plans to resume launches as operations improve and sales recover. "We will actually go back to some new product launches over the course of this year," Aggarwal said.
The comments mark the clearest acknowledgement yet from the company that parts of its product roadmap slowed while Ola dealt with operational strain across service centres and supply chains.
ALSO READ: Ola Electric Claims Customers Kept Buying Despite Viral Service Complaints
Delayed Roadmap
The slowdown comes after Ola spent several years outlining an aggressive expansion plan beyond electric scooters.
In late 2022, the company said it planned to launch multiple new electric vehicle products across categories by 2027, including motorcycles, new scooter platforms and electric cars.
Ola entered the electric motorcycle segment in August 2024 with the launch of its Roadster lineup, including the Roadster, Roadster X and Roadster Pro models.
During Tuesday's call, Aggarwal said the motorcycle business was now gaining traction, particularly in northern India, where electric motorcycle adoption remains low but is starting to rise. "We are seeing significant uptick in the Roadster product in the Northern belt of India," he said.
He added that motorcycles now contribute about 15% of Ola's volumes.
An analyst on the earnings call referred to "slip up[s]" involving products moving into "future quarters or maybe even future years".
Aggarwal did not directly dispute that characterisation and instead said the company had chosen to slow launches while focusing on improving operations and preserving capital discipline.
ALSO READ: Ola Electric Q4 Results: Net Loss Narrows To Rs 500 Crore, Revenue Slumps 56%
Service Issues
During the call, Ola also acknowledged that spare-part shortages had contributed to long repair timelines for customers.
Aggarwal said the company's earlier operating model required parts to be ordered only after a service request was raised, leading to delays even for routine repairs.
"Even for a brake pad replacement the guy had to wait 10 days," he said. He added that the process sometimes stretched fulfilment timelines to "20, 30 day" periods.
The company has since started stocking parts at service centres and shifted procurement to a forecast-based system, Aggarwal said.
Ola said service metrics improved during the year, with service backlog down 88% and same-day closures at about 87%.
Demand Rebound
The Bengaluru-based electric two-wheeler maker said demand has improved in recent months despite criticism around service quality earlier in the year. Aggarwal said inventory across Ola's network had fallen sharply as sales recovered. "People are buying whatever they can find in the network from us," he said.
He said inventory levels had dropped to three to four days and that the company was carrying an order backlog.
Ola expects first-quarter orders to reach 40,000 to 45,000 units as volumes recover.
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