Quoting Finshots on Ola Electric
Finshots, What's Going On At Ola Electric
It is something far more mundane and far more difficult: a company hitting the hardest phase of its lifecycle. The phase where vision has to give way to execution discipline. Where scale has to start producing profits, not just headlines.
Ola tried to build a manufacturing giant at startup speed. That audacity forced the entire industry to move faster. But manufacturing is unforgiving, and the margin for error is thin.
As an Indian EV insider who has worked at Ather Energy and has been watching Ola Electric for 5+ years, my feelings about the company over this time period:
2020, Pre-launch: There is no way a good EV can be built in 2 years and launched like they are promising.
2021, Launch: Oh wow, a little delayed, but they managed to launch it despite COVID. But no way this scooter will be a success. It is full of issues which will cause it to fail.
2022, Growth: Hmm, I see the issues are slowly trickling in. But they are somehow managing the issues and expanding the market? They are announcing new products already?
2023, Growth, New Products: Wow - they are actually launching multiple new products, new platforms and they are in every city! They are taking over.
2024, IPO: Maybe I am wrong about everything? The scooters are everywhere, their issues don't seem to matter - they have figured out the distribution. And as long as you sell, who cares about anything else?
2025, now: Ok, I was right. They did not focus on building a quality product and a quality service network, expanded too quickly and now everything is coming back to bite them. Phew.