Ola Electric restructures to lay off 500 employees

Electric two-wheeler maker Ola Electric will lay off nearly 500 employees across various teams as part of a restructuring drive to improve margins and earnings prospects, a person familiar with the matter said. Mint.

There was no immediate response from the company led by Bhavish Aggarwal MintRequest for comment.

A few months ago, Ola Electric’s sister company Ola Consumer (formerly Ola Cabs) announced a restructuring in April that would affect about 10 per cent of its employees. Its chief executive, Hemant Bakshi, also resigned less than a year after joining the company as it prepared for an IPO. Its chief financial officer, Karthik Gupta, also resigned as a result of the action, which affected about 200 employees.

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In April this year, Ola also shut down its ride-hailing operations in New Zealand, Australia and the UK to focus more on expanding its electric fleet in India.

Earlier this month, Ola Electric reported a second-quarter net loss $495 crore, narrowed at Rs. $5.24 billion a year ago, but the increase was higher than $347 crore in the April-June quarter.

customer dilemma

The company’s after-sales service has also struggled in recent months, leaving some customers dissatisfied. Two people with direct knowledge of the situation said the Bengaluru-based company receives nearly 80,000 complaints a month Mint September.

Reports in September said its service centers have been struggling to keep up, with the company receiving 6,000 to 7,000 complaints a day, causing long delays that overwhelm service staff and frustrated customers.

Ola has reportedly come under government scrutiny after receiving over 10,000 customer complaints against the company. However, the company has clarified that the backlog of complaints has been resolved and the company is focusing on expanding its sales and managed services infrastructure. The company plans to expand the number of stores to 2,000 by March 2025 from 782 as of September 2024.

Nonetheless, the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has ordered a detailed probe into alleged “deficiencies” in the company’s services and products, particularly regarding its scooters, Mint reported last week.

On Thursday, Ola Electric shares closed 3% lower at $Shares were trading at $67.23 on the National Stock Exchange.