Ola Electric’s Crossroads: Can a 250-Merson Service Taskforce Salvage a Sinking Ship? 

Ola Electric’s deployment of a 250-member rapid-response team represents a critical emergency measure to address a deep-rooted service crisis that has decimated the company, beginning with over 100,000 consumer complaints in late 2024 regarding hardware and software failures, which led to a catastrophic 71% year-on-year sales plunge to just 8,400 units in November 2025 and caused its stock price to hit an all-time low.

The company’s previous reactive fixes—including layoffs, service center restructuring, and digital initiatives—failed to restore consumer trust, creating a vicious cycle where falling sales crippled revenue needed for improvements, and this service collapse exposed deeper strategic failures, such as product missteps, delays in its ambitious battery gigafactory, and a distracting pivot to home energy storage, leaving the former market leader in a “sacrifice for survival” mode as it struggles to meet a sharply reduced annual sales target amidst a severe liquidity and credibility crunch.

Ola Electric’s Crossroads: Can a 250-Merson Service Taskforce Salvage a Sinking Ship? 

For Ola Electric and its charismatic founder Bhavish Aggarwal, December 2025 represents a critical moment of reckoning. The company is deploying a 250-member rapid-response team across India in a dramatic, last-ditch effort to clear crippling service backlogs. This “service reboot” is a direct response to a reputational crisis so severe it has triggered a near-total collapse in sales and investor confidence. This article examines whether this emergency measure is a genuine turnaround strategy or merely a symptom of a deeper, systemic failure at what was once India’s electric vehicle pioneer. 

The Service Meltdown: From Market Leader to Consumer Pariah 

Ola Electric’s service woes are not new but have reached a critical mass. The problems first surfaced prominently in late 2024 when over 100,000 complaints were lodged with the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA), citing issues from malfunctioning hardware and software glitches to outright service failures. This number has continued to grow, with the CCPA intensifying its investigation after receiving over 10,000 complaints in a single year. 

The situation on the ground has been dire. Social media remains flooded with unresolved complaints, while physical service centers have been described as overwhelmed, with yards crammed with scooters left unattended for weeks. In extreme cases, such as in Goa, mass consumer protests over service failures led state authorities to consider suspending the company’s licenses. The core of the problem was a fundamental structural mismatch: Ola scaled its sales and deliveries aggressively in 2023, but its service network and spare parts supply chain failed to grow at a comparable pace. 

A Strategic Zig-Zag: Ola’s Evolving (and Faltering) Fixes 

The current 250-person taskforce is not Ola’s first attempt at a fix. It is, rather, the latest in a series of reactive strategies that have confused customers and employees alike. The company’s approach to its service crisis has been marked by frequent pivots: 

• Expansion and Contraction: In December 2024, Ola expanded its sales and service network, only to later shut down dedicated service centers and regional warehouses as part of a restructuring. The new model relies on its 4,000 retail outlets to double as service and parts hubs. 

• Automation and Layoffs: In a move aimed at cost-cutting and efficiency, Ola laid off over 1,000 contractual and full-time employees across sales, service, and warehouse operations in early 2025. 

• Digital Promises: The company launched an in-app service appointment and parts-purchase system, aiming to bypass clogged service centers. 

• “Hyperservice” Initiative: First announced in 2024 and expanded in October 2025, this program aims to “open source” its service infrastructure. The company claims it has nearly cleared backlogs in Bengaluru using this model and plans to replicate it nationally. 

Despite these efforts, public trust has not recovered. As one industry veteran noted, “Despite CEO Bhavish Aggarwal’s repeated assurances that ‘service issues are behind us,’ public sentiment tells a different story”. 

The Inevitable Collapse: How Service Failure Drove Sales Off a Cliff 

The commercial consequences of this eroded trust have been catastrophic and are quantified in the table below, which highlights Ola’s precipitous decline. 

This sales collapse has created a vicious cycle. Kotak Securities analysts warn that the company’s “situation is already showing visible strain” and that without addressing core volume issues, “the fragility will rapidly escalate into a full-blown crisis”. The falling volumes have severely impacted revenue, which dropped 43% year-on-year in the second quarter, making it difficult to fund the very service improvements needed to win back customers. 

Beyond Service: A Company Unraveling 

While the service crisis is the most visible wound, Ola’s troubles are multi-faceted, suggesting deeper issues with strategic focus and execution. 

• Product Missteps and Delays: Ola quietly discontinued its affordable S1 Z and Gig scooters shortly after launch and faced multiple delays in launching its much-hyped Roadster motorcycle. This erratic product strategy confused the market. 

• The Battery Gambit: Aggarwal’s ambitious bet on in-house battery cell manufacturing has been plagued by missed timelines. Targets for its gigafactory capacity have been repeatedly reset, raising doubts about its eligibility for critical government production-linked incentive (PLI) benefits. The company also faced allegations, which it denied, of attempting to procure proprietary technology from a South Korean battery maker. 

• A Desperate Pivot to Energy: In a striking shift, Ola has launched “Ola Shakti,” a home energy storage system, projecting ₹1,200 crore in revenue from this segment by FY27. Analysts view this with deep skepticism, seeing it as a distraction from its core automotive crisis and an entry into a market dominated by established players with strong distribution. 

• Funding Winter: The deteriorating performance has spooked investors. Reports indicate Ola is struggling to secure a planned ₹1,500-crore equity raise, and lenders are hesitant about a separate debt plan, citing its weak financials. 

Conclusion: A Test Case in Trust and Execution 

Ola Electric’s story is a cautionary tale for the entire EV ecosystem. It demonstrates that in the automotive industry—a sector where long-term reliability is paramount—breakneck growth without robust after-sales support is a recipe for disaster. The company raced to win market share but forgot that for a consumer, the relationship with the vehicle begins, not ends, at the time of purchase. 

The deployment of the 250-member taskforce is a necessary emergency intervention, but it addresses only the symptom. The real question is whether Ola can execute a fundamental cultural and operational overhaul. Can it build the disciplined, customer-centric, and strategically focused organization required to climb back from fifth place? 

For Bhavish Aggarwal, the visionary, the challenge is now one of gritty operational turnaround. For the Indian EV market, Ola’s struggle is a reminder that sustainable leadership is built not just on vision and valuation, but on trust, quality, and the unglamorous, everyday excellence of customer service. The road ahead for Ola is not about hype, but about humility and hard work. The nation is watching to see if its former champion can learn this lesson in time.