More OLA stores, models; but there’s a backlog

New Delhi: Ola Electric’s co-founder Bhavish Aggarwal has just announced an ambitious plan to open as many as 3,200 stores by the end of December.

These will be in addition to the current 800. Aggarwal has said the massive expansion plan is to reach electric two-wheelers (e2Ws) to every pincode in the country.

It’s ironical how these announcements are relayed by our media without a caveat or a question. Even the stock market swallowed it and moved up 6.6 percent soon after the announcement, in anticipation of a massive sales boost.

 Some of the pink papers which carry such ‘news’ must now do their due diligence and check how many Ola stores actually opened, and how they are performing.

Isn’t it cheeky a company facing thousands of complaints from Ola scooter buyers, and unable to provide maintenance services to its existing customers, wants to expand points of sales four-fold? Doesn’t the company first need to explain and apologize for its existing non-functional after-sales network?

The National Consumer Helpline, managed by the Department of Consumer Affairs, has registered 10,644 complaints against Ola e-scooters from September 1, 2023, to August 30, 2024.

In recent months social media has been agog with pictures and videos of lines of junked Ola e2Ws outside showrooms and service stations. Several videos of frustrated consumers – one setting fire to an Ola store, another destroying his vehicle in front of a showroom – went viral.

But it took a stand-up comic to take on Bhavish Aggarwal on ‘X’ with these videos and complaints to force a public debate.

The Fourth Estate prides itself of speaking Truth to Power; but it was only after lakhs of consumers pitched in to support Kunal Kamra, that the mainline media began reporting the skirmish.

And amidst falling sales and stock price, Ola co-founder Bhavish Aggarwal was hardly remorseful. Instead, he offered Kunal Kamra a job to come and help him solve Ola’s problems!