Ola appoints Arun Sirdeshmukh as CEO of vehicle sales platform

Ola is looking to diversify from being a ride-hailing service company to a mobility company. It is clear that the intent right from foraying into electric vehicle business under the Ola Electric brand, or the recent vehicle sales platform christened Ola Cars. The company’s new vehicle commerce platform (Ola Cars) aims to cater to the purchase of both new and pre-owned vehicles through the Ola App.

Ola Cars will offer a range of services to customers, beginning with purchase, vehicle finance & insurance, registration, maintenance including vehicle health diagnostics and service, accessories and finally resale of the vehicle back to the company.

To begin with Ola Cars will deal in pre-owned and, over time, will open it up for new vehicles from Ola Electric and other automotive brands as well. The platform will begin operations with 30 cities, and soon will scale it up to over 100 cities by next year.

Ola has appointed Arun Sirdeshmukh as CEO of Ola Cars. He has more than 30 years experience in consumer internet, FMCG, retail and fashion industries, including with Amazon India, Reliance Trends and IBM Global Services. He will oversee the entire sales and distribution, service, marketing, customer support, and go-to-market strategy for the business.

Bhavish Aggarwal, founder and CEO, Ola said “Customers are looking for a new way to buy, service and sell their vehicles. They are no longer satisfied with the archaic retail store mode. They want more transparency and a digital experience. With Ola Cars, we are bringing a completely new experience for buying, selling and overall ownership for both new and owned vehicles. I look forward to working with Arun and building this core pillar of our New Mobility vision.” 

Arun Sirdeshmukh, CEO, Ola Cars said, “Ola has always been committed to delivering technology-driven innovations to enhance consumer’s mobility experience. With Ola Cars, we are completely reimagining not just buying and selling but also vehicle finance, insurance, as well as maintenance – an end-to-end digital-first experience for our customer. We have plans to expand aggressively over the next few months across India and international markets and also launch new verticals in this business including pre-owned 2W and new vehicles.”

The company says Ola Cars is part of its larger vision of new mobility that encompasses three key pillars –

1. New Mobility Services expanding from 150 to 500 cities and increasing the reach from 100 million people to 500 million people.
2. New Energy Vehicles with EVs across existing and new vehicle form factors to bring cleaner, efficient and more affordable transportation to people.
3. New Auto Retail will dramatically improve the entire lifecycle of vehicle ownership for a customer. With New Mobility becoming mainstream, over a billion people will have access to mobility solutions tailor-made for them.