When Ola Electric first revealed its plans to cut out the middleman and deliver its e-scooters directly to customers, industry watchers took notice.
After all, it was the first time an electric vehicle maker in India had decided to borrow a page from Tesla’s playbook to get rid of the dealership culture.
That was a bold move in the world’s second-most populous country where people visit multiple showrooms and test-drive many models before deciding on a vehicle rather than buying it online, and expecting customer service every step of the way after placing the order.
Fast forward to January 2022, and Ola Electric’s ambitious plan to deliver scooters directly to customers (D2C) seems to be plagued with botched execution, irking customers and exposing the electric vehicle maker’s inexperience in distribution.
Ola Electric, which counts Temasek, SoftBank, Tiger Global and Matrix Partners India as its investors, was originally supposed to start delivering its vehicles in October 2021. It started doing so only in mid-December.
To make things worse, many customers faced additional issues due to delayed vehicle registration, lack of proper communication from the company and missing features in the e-scooters they received, according to many customers interviewed by DH.
Nikhil Chaudhari, 35, and Ratan Mehta, 48, had their deliveries scheduled for December 2021. Both of them have still not received their e-scooters.
“My delivery window was December 15-31, 2021. However, there has been no update after I submitted my documents for registration on December 29,” Chaudhari said.
Anthony de Ruijter, a Senior Associate at Third Bridge Group and expert in India’s e-scooter industry, said that a major reason for the delays in deliveries could be the difficulties tied to developing the products promised by the producers within the tight timeline.
“Another broader factor is the supply chain. Whilst India has major domestic manufacturing capabilities from frames to power trains, access to battery cells and rare earth is going to be a challenge and could be what's constraining current supply,” explained DeRuijter, whose company advises private equity firms, hedge funds and others on investment opportunities.
Ola Electric appears to be experiencing initial struggles, but ultimately the e-scooter focused startups will experience less complexity in the longer term, he said.
“We acknowledge that setting up the D2C infrastructure is going to be a struggle for Ola Electric and not something that gets done in 1-2 years,” DeRuijter said, adding that the company “will need local channel partners of some kind pan-India that can handle the registration process.”
Waiting and waiting
Arun Sirdeshmukh, Chief Business Officer, Ola Electric, said in a statement that 4,000 e-scooters have been shipped in December.
However, many of the customers whose delivery window was December 15-31, 2021, still haven’t received their e-scooters.
As of January 7, the total Ola scooters registered on the Vahan portal stands at 456, about 10% of its claim of having shipped 4,000 scooters in December 2021.
Some customers have been receiving emails from the company pushing their delivery to January 10 due to the unavailability of the Liquid Silver colour variant or giving them an option to choose another colour if they wanted an expedited delivery, they told DH.
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Sandeep Gowda, 36, who is awaiting the delivery of the Ola S1 Pro Liquid Silver variant, said, “After receiving an email on December 29, 2021, I opted for a colour change but they haven’t despatched my e-scooter yet.”
Until January 4, his app continued to show December 15-31, 2021 as the delivery window and the status still showed the scooter yet to be dispatched. On January 4, he received an email from the company asking him for documents to proceed with the registration process.
A few other customers, whose scooters have been dispatched, said the vehicles were stuck at the registration stage, delaying the deliveries further.
Missing features
Besides the delivery hassles, customers DH spoke with complained about some common issues in the scooters, echoing the ways of other buyers on social media.
"I found preliminary issues like panel gaps, software bugs, missing features and a faulty seat & grab rail design that affects the riding experience," Rahul Prasadh, 34, a private sector employee, told DH. After repeated tweets and emails, the company has assured to replace the scooter, but the issues haven't been resolved as of now.
Rizwan Khan, 29, an Amazon delivery executive, rated the overall riding experience as a good one but for the panel gaps, which was later fixed, and the left-side grab rail brushing and damaging the seat.
Some customers also complained about missing features in the scooter. These features include the navigation, voice control and digital key, most of which will be passed on as OTA (over-the-air) updates as late as June 2022.
“OTA updates is a very well accepted practice globally in EV. As we had communicated earlier, we will also be releasing several features over OTA in the coming weeks and months. This way our scooter stays current and new in the hands of the customer,” Ola Electric told DH in an email.
Also Read | Ola announces pre-owned car festival
Some interviewed by DH urged the company to promise only what it can deliver.
“They should advertise only what they can deliver,” said Pradeep Kumar M, 46, an IT employee who took delivery of his Midnight Blue S1 Pro on December 31, 2021, adding that “the missing features might be a dampener for some of the millennials since most of these are fancy features which I don’t need.”
Some customers, who are still awaiting their deliveries, also complained about a lack of clear communication from Ola Electric’s team and long delays in the registration and financing process.
Ola Electric could consider partnering with garage aggregators and service stations in key hubs to improve “aftermarket services”, Anthony de Ruijter said.
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