The Ola Electric Saga: Are surge in complaints and declining market share a wake-up call for Bhavish Aggarwal?

• Ola Electric has come under the scanner after a surge in customer complaints.
• The company’s sales and market share have also been declining.
• The government has reportedly issued a show cause notice to Ola Electric.

Ola Electric was once considered the most promising electric automaker in the country, from dominating the electric two-wheeler with its electric scooters to introducing multiple electric bikes simultaneously. The company had many things going for it, hosting a vast distribution network via its cab-hailing platform and a conducive policy environment that incentivised the growth of EVs.

But within a few years of its launch, somewhere something seems to have gone awfully wrong!

The Bhavish Aggarwal-led company has recently been in the news for all the wrong reasons, from the company’s founder engaging in an online spat with comedian Kunal Kamra to customers taking to social media to complain about their scooters.

But that’s not where the company’s problems end. One of the seemingly direct effects of the rise in customer complaints has been subdued sales in recent months. Besides this, the company has also come under the government’s scanner.

Surge in complaints

According to a recent report, Ola Electric recently formed a new service team to deal with the surge in customer complaints. As per the report, the electric two-wheeler maker is receiving as many as 80,000 customer complaints per month, overwhelming its service infrastructure.


The high number of complaints reportedly resulted in high wait times for customers, resulting in growing customer dissatisfaction, which is regularly played out on social media.

Declining market share

It’s not just social media, the company’s market share has also been on the decline along with its sales. From nearly a 50% market share in April 2024, the company’s market share declined to 27% in September 2024.

While the company still leads the Indian electric two-wheeler market, legacy automakers like Bajaj Auto and TVS Motor are closing in. While Bajaj Auto reported a 21.5% market share in September 2024, TVS Motor reported a 20.3% market share.

From occupying nearly half of the market, Ola Electric has now been restricted to a quarter and by the looks of it, the company may not even be able to hold the top position by the end of the year if the current trend continues.

Ola Electric comes under the government’s scrutiny

Amid rising complaints, Ola Electric has also come under the government’s scanner. The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA), India’s consumer watchdog issues a show-cause notice to Ola Electric over potential violations of the Consumer Protection Act (2019).

According to a report, The National Consumer Helpline (NCH) run by the Department of Consumer Affairs has received 10,644 complaints against Ola Electric since September 2023. When the NCH approached Ola Electric, the body was reportedly met with apathy by the company.

Out of the 10,644 complaints, 3,389 relate to delays in providing service to the vehicles, 1,899 are around delivery delays for new vehicles and 1,459 customers have complained about services that were promised but not provided.

According to a report by CNBCTV-18, CCPA chairman Nidhi Khare has said the complaints against Ola Electric have been classified in 10 categories, including “delayed and unsatisfactory service”, “refusal or delay in warranty services”, “recurrent defects despite services”, “unprofessional conduct and complaint closure” and more.

A customer’s harrowing experience

Business Insider India spoke to Mr Rakesh (name changed), an Ola Electric customer who has been facing issues with his Ola S1 Pro.

The customer paid for the vehicle in August 2023 and the scooter was delivered in January 2024, after a five-month wait.

The first issue that the customer faced was that despite the scooter only being delivered in January 2024, the scooter’s warranty began in August 2023, depriving the customer of five months of warranty.

Not just this, the vehicle’s insurance began in November 2023, two months prior to the delivery. While this is a concerning issue, this was the least of the customer’s problems.


As per the customer, his scooter repeatedly faced issues, not even turning on at times. Rakesh said that he was forced to restart his vehicle four to five times a day just to be able to use it and if this didn’t work, he was forced to remove and re-insert a plug placed under the seat.

However, even this failed several times and in less than eight months of usage, Rakesh was forced to get his vehicle towed to the service centre multiple times with the help of roadside assistance (RSA). He claimed that he faced the issue nearly 30 times so far. He further said that the scooter has spent the majority of its time at the service centre, which is extremely disappointing after spending over ₹1.6 lakh on a vehicle.


At the service centre, the service executives were unable to find the exact cause of the issue. To try and solve the issue, the scooter’s control unit was reportedly changed twice and there were multiple software updates.

Rakesh has had a disappointing experience so far, especially with the service executives being unable to diagnose the issue and him having to repeatedly visit the service centre.

A wake-up call?

Many users on the internet have labelled Ola vehicles as subpar and not fit for this competitive market that’s growing rapidly. The initial marketing was good, helping the company conquer almost half of the market share. But a bad quality product can dent the reputation of a company severely in the long run.

This must serve as a wake-up call for Bhavish Aggarwal and everyone at Ola Electric and the consumers hope that the company not only works on improving its quality control but also overhauls its service infrastructure to more efficiently diagnose and solve issues with their vehicles.

During an interaction early in the company’s journey, Aggarwal once said that he hopes to sell around 1.5 lakh to 2 lakh scooters a month, which is close to what one of the popular petrol scooters manages to do each month.

While this dream looked achievable at one time, the journey now seems quite tedious.

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