Ola Electric’s freefall seems to be continuing unabated.
Ola Electric’s market share in the electric 2 wheeler segment has further fallen to 27 percent in September 2024. This is nearly half of the market share of 49 percent that Ola Electric had commanded in June before its August IPO. While Ola still remains India’s top-selling electric two-wheeler company, large incumbents including Bajaj and TVS are now seem to be within touching distance of its leadership position.
Ola’s market share has fallen steadily since its IPO. From a high of 49 percent in June, Ola’s market share fell to 39 percent in July, and further fell to 32 percent in August. In September, it’s touched a fresh low of 27 percent. At this point, other players don’t seem so far behind — in September, Bajaj Auto had a market share of 21%, followed by TVS Motors at 20%, and Ather at 14%.
The fall in market share has coincided with several bits of bad publicity for Ola. For the last few weeks, videos of bikes lying in its service centers, waiting to be fixed, have been going viral on X. Things came to a head last month when a customer, Mohammed Nadeem, burned down Ola’s showroom in Kalaburagi in North Karnataka over delays in the servicing of his scooter. And Mint had reported that Ola was receiving 80,000 customer complaints a month, and the company had been struggling to keep up its service commitments.
It appears that these concerns over the reliability of Ola’s scooters have spooked customers, and they’re looking elsewhere for their electric scooter needs. Indeed, not only has Ola’s market share fallen in relative terms, but the company is selling fewer scooters than before in absolute terms too — Ola Electric sold 23,965 units in September compared to 26,928 units in August, and 40, 814 units in July.
These concerns seem to have reflected in the company’s stock price as well. Ola Electric’s IPO had opened at a price of Rs. 76, and its stock had surged in the first few weeks of trading, and touched a high of Rs. 160 per share. But the stock has given up most of its gains, and currently trades at Rs. 100 per share.
And the fact that Ola is losing market share month-on-month could put further downward pressure on its stock price. When Ola had gone public, one of its biggest selling points was that it alone had managed to capture half of the EV market. With that number now down to just 27% — and traditional 2 wheeler companies breathing down its neck — Ola will have to quickly fix its service woes if it hopes to remain India’s top-selling EV scooter brand.