Executives at Ola Electric would have rejoiced at the spectacle of the company dethroning segment-leader and one of its oldest incumbents, Hero Electric, for the pole position in India’s most lucrative mobility space — electric two-wheelers. Even as the traditional internal combustion engine (ICE)-powered two-wheeler market has alarmingly declined, the electric two-wheeler market has spurted at an eye-watering pace, even though on a low base.

Ola Electric sold 12,691 vehicles in April — over-powering the oldest incumbent, Hero Electric, which sold 6,572 vehicles. Okinawa Autotech was the second-highest selling brand in the segment — clocking in sales of 11,012 vehicles.

Bhavish Aggarwal, the head honcho and the face of Ola Electric, known to not mince words, took to Twitter to celebrate the feat. “We’re shaking up the incumbents and vested interests. They better focus on their products rather than fake narratives against us! Customers and markets have voted for facts and truth. We’re just getting started,” reads his tweet.

Ola Electric’s market share grew by 39% when compared to March. It may be noted that Ola Electric has been able to dethrone the incumbents within five months of launching its scooter in the market. What makes the achievement an epochal moment for the Bengaluru-based company is that recently, it was fending off brickbats to protect its credibility to drive India’s electric mobility story.

“We may not agree with the way Ola Electric’s D2C model, but what you cannot take away from them is that they have inimitably captured the imagination of the people,” Vinkesh Gulati, president of the Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (FADA) tells Fortune India. Gulati has been critical of how Ola Electric has circumvented the dealer in selling its scooters.

“While Ola Electric is trying to be a first of its kind OEM in India by going directly to the customers, it didn’t realise that dealers are a critical part of the value chain who keep on ground systems in place for a seamless customer experience,” he had remarked earlier.

Gulati was also sceptical of the three-to-four-week delivery timeline. “As a dealer, we generally register any vehicle in an hour to a maximum of five days’ time after the full payment is received, but according to Ola Electric, dispatching, with registering the vehicles, takes three to four weeks. It is unimaginable that a customer will give full payment to the dealer and wait that long to take delivery,” he explained in an earlier conversation.

India's electric 2-wheeler industry

How Ola Electric became No. 1 EV scooter brand