Production hurdles to further delay Ola Electric deliveries: Report

Ola Electric made an unbelievable promise to put a million electric vehicles on the road by 2021 and produce 10 million annually by 2022 three years ago. But merely a week into starting the deliveries of its flagship Ola S1 electric scooters, the company is said to have hit production hurdles.

According to a Bloomberg report, Ola Electric is reportedly facing a delay of several weeks for mass production. It cited anonymous sources saying that the mass production may be pushed back to at least January. The company’s body shop is running at half capacity whereas the paint shop is not operating at all. The company reportedly is making just 150 vehicles a day, even though it has an order book of around 90,000 scooters to be delivered by February, the report said.

According to the Week, Ola Electric’s $330-million mega factory in Chennai began churning out scooters last week. The company is working on India’s largest EV charging network with 100,000 charging points across 400 cities. The company has already begun sharing images of its scooters reaching customers in Pune, Hyderabad, Vishakapatnam, Chennai, and Bengaluru.

The company promised stellar performance metrics for its flagship Ola S1. It boasts of a top speed of 115 kmph, a range of 181km, and a 0-40km/h dash in three seconds. It also added an innovative customizable interface called Dash with “MoveOS.”

The Ola S1 electric scooters carry a price tag of Rs 99,999 and Rs 1,29,999 for the two variants—S1 and S1 Pro—respectively.

In a tweet on December 16, founder and CEO Bhavish Agarwal acknowledged the delays. “We did get delayed by a month from our initial promise. A delay is a delay and we will ensure we do our best to meet our own very tight timelines and high-quality standards,” he tweeted.

 

Further, he assured to fulfill the promises made by the company. “We’re still at the start of our journey and will slip occasionally on timelines, and there will be improvements we will need to make in our products. But we will keep pushing in our efforts to make world class products, innovate on technology and make India a world leader in EVs!” he wrote.