DELAY IN THE ELECTRIC INITIATIVE

ABOUT OLA ELECTRIC:

“Ola Electric Mobility” founded in 2017 by ANI Technologies, Ola Cabs’ parent company. Ola Electric spun off as a separate business in March 2019. With founder Bhavish Aggarwal buying out the parent company’s stake in the business.

Further, Ola Electric raised $250 million from SoftBank during Series B round funding in July 2019. Thus, earning a valuation of over $1 billion. In May 2020, Ola Electric acquired Amsterdam-based EV startup Etergo to launch an own line of electric scooters.

BRIEF:

Due to technical problems on its website, Ola Electric has temporarily postponed the sale of electric scooters. This was announced with much fanfare. It was announced earlier this month that the startup would launch its first two electric scooters, the S1 and S1Pro, on September 8. When the time sale went live at 6 PM, the website crashed, and potential buyers were unable to purchase e-scooters.

APOLOGY:

Bhavish Aggarwal, the founder of Ola Electric and Ola Cabs, apologized for crashing of the website and said the website was not up to industry standards of quality. He stated Ola Electric’s team experienced many technical difficulties while making its website live for sale.

In a heartfelt note of apology, he said, “I know we disappointed you, and I sincerely apologize to all of you for what was clearly a very frustrating experience.” According to Aggarwal, the team aims to offer a digital purchase journey for its customers, which includes a digital loan process without any paperwork.

For the sake of providing the ‘right experience’ for its customers, Ola Electrics will take another week to announce the new live sale date, which will be September 15 at 8 a.m.

According to Aggarwal, if a customer already reserved an e-scooter, they will still be able to purchase it first on the new sale date. On July 15, Ola announced early reservations for e-scooters at a price of INR 499, prior to their official launch date of August 15. For the time being, the delivery date will remain unchanged.

Also, Read| MAKE TESLA IN INDIA FIRST BEFORE REDUCING IMPORT DUTIES, THE GOVERNMENT TELLS ELON MUSK