Government registration data indicates that the number of customers who received scooters in the 17-day December delivery window is far lower than the 4,000 scooters that Ola claims to have despatched.
On the very last day of its December delivery window, Ola Electric’s CEO Bhavish Aggarwal took to Twitter to announce that the company had despatched scooters to all those who were promised a delivery in December. In an official statement later, the company’s chief business officer Arun Sirdeshmukh confirmed that it had shipped almost 4,000 scooters in December.
Since Ola is not a part of Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), its numbers are not listed as part of SIAM’s monthly sales figures, so we’ll have to take their word on the number of despatches.
However, data available on the central government’s Vahan portal shows that just 238 Ola Electric scooters were registered in December. This database contains vehicle registration data for all the states and Union Territories in India – with the only exceptions being Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
Even after taking these exceptions into account, the number of registered scooters is a small fraction of the claimed number of despatches. And since a scooter cannot be delivered until it is registered, it appears that the lion’s share of customers who were promised delivery in the December 15-31 window have failed to receive it on time.
Clearly, Ola’s doorstep delivery model seems to be running into obstacles, with Bhavish Aggarwal claiming that the registration process is taking longer than expected.
Beyond this, there have been claims and images from customers of scooters being delivered with damage or other issues.
An OLA S1 Pro was delivered to me at the Visakhapatnam event today.
It has cracks & dents all over the body. The manager says she will get it repaired before delivery. But repair is not the option. I paid for a new product, not a refurbished product@OlaElectric @don4every1 #Ola pic.twitter.com/ifZnDsJaXg— Karthik Varma (@leovarmak) December 22, 2021
One Twitter user shared pictures of his scooter being delivered with visible dents and scratches, while another has shared an image of his scooter on a flatbed truck, claiming that it had to be towed away after encountering a screeching noise and headlight issues. A third owner has been routinely sharing pictures and videos of issues that he has been facing during home charging.
@bhash hi Bavish, my Ola S1 pro was delivered yesterday. In less than 6km of drive aftr delivery it has to be towed away for screeching noises and headlight issues.What irks me more is that I’m yet to get my bike back despite promising to bring it back in few hours @OlaElectric pic.twitter.com/pHi0uEPGYi
— Toadie (@ToadTweets) December 22, 2021
Based on tweets shared by customers, it also appears that the ‘home charger’ offered by Ola simply entails the installation of an electrical socket and its accompanying wiring, at your home. Customers then have to use the portable charger provided with the scooter to charge at home. This is in contrast to products like the Ather 450X, Bajaj Chetak and TVS iQube, which offer a dedicated standalone home charger with its own connector, exclusive from the portable charger that comes with the scooter.
— (@don4every1) December 24, 2021
Some bug/defect/glitch when charging, was restored after hard reset. pic.twitter.com/Wnd7QTyyln
— (@don4every1) December 18, 2021
In the midst of all this, Aggarwal has announced that the next purchase window for the scooters will open very soon.
