Ola Electric retakes E2W market lead in January following store expansion

Bhavish Aggarwal-led Ola Electric recaptured its lead in the electric two-wheelers market in January after the company doubled down on expanding its store footprint last month.

The EV maker sold 22,656 units in January, according to Vahan data, capturing a 25% market share amidst rising competition from legacy brands including Bajaj Auto and TVS Motors.

Amid dwindling market share, Ola Electric opened 3,200 new stores across the country in December—a strategy that has contributed to the rise in the number of vehicles it sold in January. The company now runs around 4,000 stores.

Aggarwal at Ola Electric’s Gen 3 launch event on Friday, said, “We have expanded our network. And over the next few months, we will continue to see the benefit of that. Because while we open 4,000 stores, it takes a few months for each store to stabilise. So the stores opened at the end of December. And now slowly, the stores are stabilising.”

Additionally, to address the mounting consumer complaints and criticisms of the company’s after-sale services, Ola Electric said that all new stores will be co-located with service centres.

At the event, Aggarwal also said that the company has now solved almost all of its service backlog and the persisting service issues. “And you can see that (improvement) in the market share now. Consumer sentiment is back strongly with us. Consumer interest in our products is back,” he added.

Meanwhile, its peer and IPO-bound Ather Energy sold 12,101 units, a marginal increase from the 10,508 units it had sold in December.

Additionally, competition between legacy brands Bajaj Auto and TVS Motor continues to rise in the EV ecosystem. In January, TVS overtook Bajaj in the total number of vehicles sold which stood at 22,080 compared to Bajaj’s 20,176 units.

Last month, Bajaj overtook Ola Electric and TVS to become the market leader in the electric two-wheeler space for the first time.

Shares of Ola Electric briefly touched its listing price of Rs 76 on Friday after reporting its market share data. Its shares were trading at Rs 74.62 apiece as of 1:50 PM on BSE.

(Disclaimer: Shradha Sharma, Founder and CEO of YourStory, is an independent director in Ola Electric.)