Ola Electric, which had to defer e-scooter sales due to a website glitch last week, opened the purchase of Ola S1 and S1 Pro on Wednesday
Ola Electric, the mobility giant’s electric vehicle arm, said that it sold scooters worth over Rs 600 crore in just 24 hours, during its sale of Ola S1 and S1 Pro scooters. The SoftBank-backed company said it sold 4 scooters every second.
Ola Electric, which had to defer e-scooter sales due to a website glitch last week, opened the purchase of Ola S1 and S1 Pro on Wednesday. The purchase can be made exclusively on the Ola app and the process is completely digital.
Over the last couple of months, the firm opened up reservations. The firm said lakhs of consumers booked their slot to purchase the Ola S1 and S1 Pro.
“Yesterday we opened for purchase and consumers responded by booking the Ola scooters in unprecedented numbers. We sold 4 scooters every second,” said Bhavesh Aggarwal, co-chairman and group chief executive officer, Ola, in a blog post. “In fact in just 24 hours, we sold scooters worth over 600 crore. That’s more, in value terms than what the entire 2W (two-wheeler) industry sells in a day. Make no mistake, the age of EVs is here.”
Ola said this response is beyond its expectations. Given its production plans in the coming months, today will be the last day for consumers to purchase their Ola S1 and S1 Pro scooters. Those who have already reserved can purchase until midnight tonight at which point, the purchase window will close. Consumers can continue to reserve their spot in the queue.
“India is committing to EVs and rejecting petrol. We sold 4 scooters/sec at peak and sold scooters worth Rs 600 crore in a day,” Aggarwal tweeted. “Today is the last day, purchase will shut at midnight. So lock in this introductory price and buy on the Ola app before we sell out.”
He said India has huge pent up demand and a massive domestic market for two-wheeler EVs. “We must leverage this to drive innovation, a robust local EV ecosystem and make India not only a big EV market, but also a global EV manufacturing hub,” said Aggarwal.
Last month, Ola Electric took the wraps off its maiden e-scooter offerings – the S1 and S1 Pro – for a commercial launch. With prices starting from Rs 99,999 (excluding state government incentives, registration fee, and insurance cost), Bhavesh Aggarwal, co-chairman and group chief executive officer, had said the e-scooters are designed and engineered in India for the world and will deliver the best scooter experience to the consumer.
Ola is now in direct competition with electric two-wheeler makers, such as Ather Energy, Hero Electric, Bajaj’s Chetak, and TVS Motor Company.