Ola Electric service crisis: New team to manage backlog as complaints rise to 80,000 a month

New Delhi: Ola Electric has assembled a new service team as the maker of battery-powered scooters grapples with a mounting pile-up of complaints from customers.

The Bengaluru-based company has been receiving nearly 80,000 complaints every month, according to two people with direct knowledge of the situation, and its service centres are struggling to keep pace. On some days, the number spikes to 6,000-7,000 a day, causing long delays, leaving service staff overwhelmed and customers frustrated, they said.

The maker of the S1 series of electric scooters has sharpened its focus on its service operations by assembling a new team, drawing employees from the product and operations divisions, among others, according to the people cited above.

Mint has not received a response to queries emailed to Ola Electric on Monday.

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Ola Electric’s problem of service delays coincides with a drop in sales. In August, it posted its worst monthly volumes this year, selling 27,506 units—a 34% decline from July—and saw its market share drop to 31% from 39%. Competitors Bajaj Auto Ltd and TVS Motor Company Ltd hold steady in the electric two-wheeler market.

Ola Electric, which has sold over 6.8 lakh electric scooters since inception, operates 430 service stations across India, according to the company website.

Service woes at the centres

At least 10 customers of Ola Electric Mint spoke with said they have faced extreme difficulty in booking service slots despite being subscribers to Ola Care Plus, a paid service plan that allows users to book home pick-up and drop service appointments. Repair wait times are as high as 30-45 days for them. Many have taken to the social media, particularly X, to voice their frustration.

“For two to three months, my scooter was lying at the service centre. I sent them countless emails, calls, and messages. The stand sensor wasn’t working, and it took me three months to get it fixed,” Akhilesh Dabharde, 34, from Nagpur, told Mint. “Small issues keep coming up, but I can’t get them resolved. The battery went kaput once, the range dropped, and the rear wheel jammed. Every month or two, there’s a new problem.”

Ola Electric’s service centre in Nagpur has about 1,000 vehicles that need to be fixed, Dabharde claimed. “The product is not as sturdy as petrol scooters.”

Neeraj Gupta’s scooter has been parked at his Pitampura, New Delhi home for a month and a half. “It won’t start. The handle lock won’t open, and I can’t drive or tow it. Whenever I complain, no one comes. I always have to post on Twitter to get a response,” he said.

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He has even filed a complaint with the National Consumer Forum, but the problem remains unresolved. Ola closed his complaint, which he registered in August, without resolution, he said.

Gupta said the staff at Ola’s service centre in Okhla, Delhi refused to take his scooter because it was “at capacity” and unable to service any more issues.

A customer's breaking point

Nisha C. Shekhaar, a lecturer from Hos Kote in rural Bangalore, was so frustrated after battling with service issues for six months that she posted a photo of her vehicle on X, (formerly Twitter) with a placard that read, “Never buy an Ola scooter.” The post went viral.

Shekhaar said Ola acted only after the consumer forum sent notice to the company on her complaint.

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“The quality is the real problem,” Shekhaar said. “I’ve already had the screen changed twice, and I’m on my third one now. I’ve lost my peace of mind. I don’t trust the scooter anymore, and I’ve demanded a refund.”

Despite Ola’s efforts to overhaul its service response, it has yet to fully address widespread dissatisfaction among customers.

Earlier this month, a disgruntled Ola Electric customer torched a company dealership in Karnataka, citing his dissatisfaction with the EV maker's poor response to the issues his scooter was facing.

Understaffed, undercapacity

On New Delhi's Najafgarh Road, locals call an overcrowded Ola Electric service centre a “graveyard of scooters”. Close to 500-600 broken-down two-wheelers clog the basement and ground floor of the centre in Moti Nagar, which was formerly occupied by a Ford showroom. Inside, an employee said on the condition of anonymity, a team of four technicians struggles to keep up with repairs that require a staff of 10.

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The center’s authorized service board has been taken down, leaving customers wondering when, or if, their vehicles will be fixed. The situation worsened after Ola Electric shuttered a nearby centre, and some customers even approached the police after waiting for more than six weeks for repairs, the employee said.

Mixed calls by analysts

Last week, brokerage firm HSBC flagged Ola Electric's recent market share loss as a “risk” for the company and slashed its FY25-26 sales volume estimates by 15-20%. However, on Tuesday, the company's shares surged 10% to hit the upper circuit after Bank of America and Goldman Sachs initiated coverage on the stock. The brokerages project a 35-50% upside, betting on the company's market leadership and vertical integration efforts.

Citing that Ola is the largest electric two-wheeler company in India with a share of about 40%, Bank of America said in its 17 September report that electric two-wheeler adoption of about 6.5% in India is at “an important inflexion on EV curve” as e-scooters are now priced below petrol scooters. “Despite being a new entrant, we believe Ola has sorted out key pieces of EV puzzle–proven and expanding product portfolio (not just a concept), reasonable funding access, brand and distribution reach, R&D/technology focus and large addressable market,” it said.