NOT Everything is Right at Ola; Only 238 Units Registered in Dec 2021

Ola S1 sales numbers (actual deliveries) for the last half month pose many questions to the company and why a new window needs to open?

On 15th of August, 2021, Ola showcased their electric scooter offerings S1 and S1 Pro, leveraging the symbolic date to fulfil their vision of making personal mobility accessible for every Indian. This announcement garnered a huge hype among their customers, so much that they received nearly a lakh pre-booking for their offerings. 

The realization of this dream has, however, been difficult and the company faced many issues and hurdles for the next 3 months – that caused a lot of delays as well. On 15th of December, 2021, Bhavish Aggarwal (CEO of Ola) tweeted the information  and shared the video of dispatch and delivery of the first batch of the S1 and S1 Pro to their respective customers. 

However, more issues in the form of lack of quality control of the delivered vehicles crept-up. On the very next day of receiving their vehicles, the irked customers took to social media to vent their frustrations and directly call out the company. In few cases, the company did respond and promised the affected customers that their issues will be resolved fully (here are some issues).

ola s1 sales

Nowhere has the maker talked about the status of deliveries out of the 1 lakh registrations. According to the data available on the Central Government’s Vahan, only 238 Ola electric scooters have been registered in the month of December 2021.

The Vahan database shares vehicle registration data for all states and Union Territories of India – except for Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. So, this number could be a little higher eventually, but only a little! And that is a paltry number when we talk about the tall claims Ola made.

Many people are raising questions over Ola Electric’s novel and unique Doorstep Delivery model and calling it a hindrance to their big plan. Some are of the belief that Ola Electric has bitten more than they can chew.

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It was on the last day of December, CEO of Ola again took to Twitter to inform that 4000 electric scooters have been dispatched from their Tamil Nadu factory within the delivery window that the company has promised. Later, this figure was also confirmed in an official statement by Arun Deshmukh. 

ola s1 sales

Latest update is that Mr. Bhavish Aggarwal himself has accepted that their delivery model seems to be running into obstacles, which might have led to such small registration numbers. He has further informed that the next purchase window for their electric scooters will open very soon. But the question is what happens to the remaining 90,000+ registrations? Have they all cancelled? If not, then what is the need for a new purchase window if there is a massive backlog?

Clearly, Ola is at the centerstage at this point of time. If it can sail through with convincing answers and actions, it will definitely be a big name to reckon with! If….