Bhavish Aggarwal-led Ola Electric saw its stock crashing to about Rs 90 a piece in the morning trade on Monday, October 7, as aggrieved customers flooded social media platforms with a myriad of issues with its flagship electric two-wheeler. This comes after Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal and comedian Kunal Kamra had a heated all-day spat on Sunday over the poor services offered by the EV company.
The Ola Electric share nosedived to Rs 90.26 a piece, a drop of 8.5% from the last trading session. The EV firm debuted on the stock market with Rs 76 and even touched Rs 157.40, before crashing like a pack of cards over innumerable hardware and software issues. Several customers have complained about the poor services offered at its service centres across the country. Since touching the all-time high, the company’s share is trading around 42% to 43% lower.
The EV firm continues to lose its market share in the Indian EV market, and in September its share further dropped to 27% amid rising competition as well as its crippling service centres. It saw 24,665 e-scooter sales last month, from 27,587 units sold in August – a drop of nearly 3,000 vehicles, according to the government transportation portal Vahan.
Ola Electric’s rivals have launched newer models that are priced closer to those of Ola, as its flagship S1 series EV scooter has become a nightmare for hundreds of customers who are consistently facing issues like malfunctioning hardware, glitching software, and unavailability of spare parts resulting in inordinate delays. As per trade analysts, the stock is currently loss-making and trading at high valuations.
An aggrieved Ola Electric customer torched its showroom in Karnataka last month over its poor service. As per reports, Ola Electric receives around 80,000 complaints monthly, overwhelming its service centres. On peak days, complaints rise to 6,000-7,000.