Bhavish Aggarwal’s Ola Electric to fire over 1,000 people as losses mount

Ola Electric Mobility Ltd is looking to axe more than 1,000 jobs as the EV maker plans to cut down its losses, according to a report by Bloomberg.

The job cuts are expected to be across multiple departments, including procurement, fulfilment, customer relations and charging infrastructure, the news report said.

Net loss of Ola Electric widened to ₹564 crore for the December quarter of 2024-25 compared with ₹376-crore loss during the year-ago period.

In an analyst call after the company announced its third-quarter results, Bhavish Aggarwal, chairman and managing director of Ola Electric, said he expects EBITDA break-even in the auto business with monthly sales of 50,000 units. “Now when we get there, it depends on market conditions as well as EV penetration. But we do feel in the next few quarters, we can get to about 50,000 monthly sales, which takes us to an auto segment EBITDA positive,” he said.

That’s over twice the sales reported by the company in January. Ola Electric sold 24,376 EVs in January, according to registration data sourced from the government’s Vahan portal.

As per Vahan, Ola’s EV registrations in February stood at 8,647 units. The pure-play automaker, however, said it sold more than 25,000 units in February with a market share of over 28%. The company recently announced the renegotiation of its contracts with its vehicle registration agencies, a move that temporarily affected registration numbers on the VAHAN portal during February 2025. The negotiations aim to reduce costs and streamline the registration process, it said in a statement.

Shares of Ola Electric dropped 5.5% in intraday trade on Monday to hit an all-time of ₹53.71 on the BSE, taking the Bhavish Aggarwal-led company’s market cap to under ₹24,000 crore. The stock of India's largest electric two-wheeler manufacturer is currently trading 29% lower than its listing price of ₹76 during its initial public offering (IPO) in August 2024.

“We have successfully maintained a strong sales momentum and leadership position through the month of February. Owing to our wide scooter portfolio across mass and premium segments and our network of 4,000 stores across India, we are now witnessing a strong uptick in demand beyond urban cities from Tier 3 & 4 towns. With our Roadster X deliveries scheduled next month, we are confident of further accelerating the EV adoption across the 2W category in India,” a spokesperson of Ola Electric Mobility said.

In February, Ola Electric announced its entry into the electric motorcycle segment with the launch of its Roadster X series. Ola’s foray into the commuter motorcycle segment, which constitutes 75% of India’s two-wheeler sales, is expected to improve its sluggish EV sales.