The dramatic unravelling of Gensol Electric Vehicle’s Pune operations—marked by no production, job cuts, and allegations of investor misdirection—offers a sobering insight into the volatile world of EV startups.
18 Apr 2025 | 5529 Views | By Shahkar Abidi
On April 9, when National Stock Exchange (NSE) officials visited Gensol Electric Vehicle's facility near Chakan in Pune, they were expecting to see a company ready to go into production in two months. Instead, they found an eerily quiet plant with barely two or three workers.
This is despite ...
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On April 9, when National Stock Exchange (NSE) officials visited Gensol Electric Vehicle's facility near Chakan in Pune, they were expecting to see a company ready to go into production in two months. Instead, they found an eerily quiet plant with barely two or three workers.
This is despite the fact that Gensol Engineering, the parent company, had informed investors of receiving ‘pre-orders’ to supply 30,000 vehicles—primarily the EZIO and EZIBOT models showcased at the Bharat Mobility Global Expo 2025. The pre-orders, as it turned out, were non-binding in nature.
“Prima facie, it appeared that the company was making misleading disclosures to investors,” SEBI Whole-Time Member Ashwani Bhatia stated in an interim order that has temporarily barred Gensol and its promoters, Anmol Singh Jaggi and Puneet Singh Jaggi, from accessing capital markets.
The controversy highlights a recurring pattern seen in the EV startup ecosystem: a race to impress stakeholders without the corresponding operational maturity to deliver. For Gensol EV, the dream appears to have stalled before it even took off.
Meanwhile, the EV unit seems to have quietly undergone a significant contraction. Once employing around 180 people, it lost more than half of its workforce in a matter of weeks, according to employees. Layoffs began in late March, with around 60 employees asked to resign in a single day, followed by continued exits into April. Those let go report unpaid salaries, abrupt dismissals, and a lack of transparency.
“People have been sacked. So who’s left to be at the factory?” Krishna Raj told Autocar Professional, a former senior manager, who noted the plant had only produced about 15 test vehicles, which too was regulatory requirements of validation, testing, etc.
Raj, who earlier worked with the likes of Mahindra & Mahindra, and Volvo Eicher, joined Gensol EV in February 2023, encouraged by the company's association with BlueSmart, an all electric ride hailing service. Even BlueSmart is under financial strain, according to media reports.
As per Raj, the first major jolt for the employees came in February, when they did not receive their salaries. Questions posed to the Human Resources (HR) were responded with assurances that it will get credited in next 2-3 days.
However, on March 24, staff were summoned. “We were told the situation at the parent company was bad,” said Raj, describing how employees were forced to choose between resignation and termination. Raj, like several others, demanded that pending salaries be cleared before any resignation was discussed. He received his February salary on April 3, followed by a termination notice the next day.
The troubles seem to be related to financial headwinds faced by parent Gensol Engineering, a listed entity. The company could no longer fund the EV business after two credit rating agencies, CARE Rating and ICRA, downgraded its ratings. ICRA also raised suspicions that the debt servicing track record submitted to it by the company was less than reliable. Although Gensol promoters vehemently denied "any involvement in falsification" of records, this led to a SEBI investigation and derailed the company’s fundraising plans.
For many long-serving employees, the downfall was as disheartening as it was abrupt. “Initially, processes were followed diligently,” said a former staffer who served the company for nearly three years and worked closely with the top management. “But eventually, compliance concerns were ignored,” he said, highlighting the abrupt way in which employees were let go.
Some of the frustration spilled over to social media. Ajay Joshi, who led business development at Gensol and its logistics arm, Wayo, accused the company of offering little in return to its loyal employees: “No warning, no severance, just salaries on hold and a master class in corporate silence.”
An email sent to Gensol EV and its top management including the promoters did not elicit any response. It will be updated, if and when it is received.
Gensol’s unraveling is not an isolated case in the burgeoning EV startup space. Other EV startups like Tork Motors, Hero Electric, Okinawa Autotech have also fallen on hard times, leading to layoffs, funding crunches, and dealer and supplier woes.
India's EV policy landscape, spearheaded by schemes like FAME and state-level subsidies, has catalyzed a flood of new entrants. However, poor overall infrastructure support, supply-chain gaps, and a relatively nascent investor ecosystem continue to pose significant risks for young companies.
Adding to the uncertainty, the EV industry is experiencing a post-pandemic recalibration, as funding slows and consumer demand moderates.
The troubles around Gensol EV are a wake-up call for India’s burgeoning electric vehicle sector. As the industry accelerates toward electrification, stakeholders—from founders and funders to regulators and workers—must focus on sustainable growth anchored in operational rigor.
Gensol’s silence is yet another reminder of how the hype has evaporated, and a painful lesson in accountability and the high cost of overpromising in a high-stakes market.