Is Bhavish Agarwal’s Ola Electric following the path of Micromax? Will it be ruined?
If you remember the beginning of the 2010s, it was common to see Micromax smartphones in the hands of most people at that time. Micromax started making mobile phones in the year 2008, when the world was in the grip of recession. The big smartphone companies were in trouble. In such a situation, Micromax dominated the Indian market by launching affordable smartphones.
But, as fast as Micromax reached the heights of success, it also came down as quickly. There were many reasons for this. But, the most important reason was the after-sale experience of the customers. Micromax was actually outsourcing smartphones of Chinese companies like Coolpad, Gionee and Oppo and selling them with its ‘punch logo’. It did not have any manufacturing unit of its own.
The smartphone market was also quite new at that time. Micromax’s ‘Chinese smartphones’ used to get damaged very quickly. Then if the user reached the service center, he had to make rounds there for months. Many times users had to spend months without a phone. The result was that they started avoiding Micromax smartphones and started adopting Samsung along with Chinese phones like Redmi, Oppo and Gionee.
What is the problem with Ola Electric?
Bhavish Agarwal’s Ola Electric is also more or less following the path of Micromax. Its after-sales service is also very bad like Micromax. The complaints of defects in Ola Electric scooters crossed 80 thousand. One user got so upset that he set fire to an Ola showroom. Videos of some Ola Electric customers have also gone viral, in which they are protesting by playing songs on loudspeakers in front of Ola showrooms.
Standup comedian Kunal Kamra cornered Ola founder Bhavish Agarwal on social media platform X over the issue of defects in Ola Electric scooters. However, instead of giving any concrete answer about the fault in his scooters and the quality of the service center, Bhavish was seen making personal attacks on Kunal Kamra. In reply to Bhavish’s post, many customers were questioning the poor service quality of Ola Electric.
Ola Electric’s market share is declining rapidly
Ola Electric once dominated the electric scooter market alone. But now its market share is declining rapidly. According to the reputed brokerage Jefferies, TVS and Bajaj have expanded their portfolios with more affordable electric two-wheelers. This has increased the market share of both these companies. Now TVS has a 19 percent share in the electric two-wheeler market and Bajaj has 18 percent.
On the other hand, talking about Ola Electric, its market share fell from 49 percent in the June quarter (Q1 FY25) to 33 percent on a monthly basis in August. If complaints of malfunctions in scooters continue to come, then this market share may fall further.
Ola Electric share Price
Ola Electric’s IPO received a very cold response. Its issue price was Rs 76 and it had a flat listing in the stock market. However, after listing, it saw tremendous growth. It gave investors a return of more than 100 percent in a few days. It also made its all-time high of Rs 157.4. But, after that, the trend of decline in Ola Electric shares started, which is not stopping.
Ola Electric shares closed at Rs 99.09 on Friday with a marginal decline of 0.17. It has fallen about 37 percent from its all-time high. Some brokerages have given Ola Electric a target price of Rs 140 in view of the bright future of EVs. However, now Ola will have to learn not only from its own mistakes but also from Micromax’s mistakes to run on the path of success.
