The brains behind Hyundai Santro will now join the board of Ola Electric

• BVR Subbu joins Ola Electric on its board of directors.
• Subbu had held top positions at Hyundai and Tata Motors. He currently heads a boutique strategy-consulting firm, Beyond Visual Range.
• Ola Electric turned a unicorn in July this year.

Ola’s subsidiary Ola Electric brought B V R Subbu on board as a director. Subbu was the former president of Hyundai India and a general manager at Tata Motors earlier in his career.

“Subbu has played a key role in building and establishing some of India’s iconic automotive products like the ubiquitous Hyundai Santro and Tata 2213. His deep understanding of the mobility space and consumers will be very valuable to us in our journey to build electric mobility for India and the world,” said Bhavish Aggarwal, Co-founder & CEO, Ola.

Subbu has been taking up various roles since he retired from Hyundai in 2006. He was also brought onto the board of Ampere Motors, the electric mobility arm of Greaves Cotton. Currently, Subbu heads a boutique strategy-consulting firm, Beyond Visual Range.

“Ola Electric is the perfect amalgam of the passion and social consciousness of youth, an exceptional appreciation and understanding of technology, and a demonstrated ability to successfully build global scale and competitiveness, coming together to attain the national imperative of sustainable mobility,” said Subbu.


In July 2019, Ola Electric turned a unicorn after it raised $250 million from Softbank. In May, Ola Electric raised funds from Arun Sarin, former Vodafone Group CEO and the Chairman Emeritus of Tata Group, Ratan Tata. In March, it raised ₹400 crores from Ola’s existing and early investors – Tiger Global and Matrix India.


Interestingly, most of the investors in Ola Electric are its parent company’s investors – from Softbank to Arun Sarin, Ratan Tata and even Tiger Global and Matrix India.