e2W industry consolidating, don’t mind market share loss in interim: Ola Electric

Growth in India’s electric two-wheeler market has slowed in recent months, and former market leader Ola Electric has seen its share erode sharply to rivals such as TVS, Bajaj, Ather and Hero MotoCorp, slipping to fourth position this year.

Ola Electric Founder, Chairman and MD Bhavish Aggarwal believes the electric two-wheeler market is undergoing consolidation. With early adopters already in the market, he says the next phase will be driven by mass-market consumers entering the space.

“It is important for all those who are tracking the EV industry to understand that the market is in a consolidation phase. Our read of the market is that the market grew a lot over the last couple of years,” Aggarwal said.

“And for the last one year, it has stabilized because the early adopters have already adopted EVs. Now it is the mass market customer who needs to get convinced about the EV proposition. The commercial proposition, they're convinced with.”

In July, August and September, the electric two-wheeler industry volume remained around 100,000 per month. While this represents robust growth on a year-on-year basis, the numbers remain largely flat sequentially.

Meanwhile, Ola Electric’s market share has steadily declined over the past year. From being the market leader with roughly 30% share in the year-ago period, the company slipped to fifth position in October, holding around 11% of the market.

“Market share has gone a little bit up and down. We are also focused on growth, but in this interim period, we don't mind a little bit of market share loss to other guys, who are actually buying market share,” Aggarwall said.

According to him, Ola Electric is prioritising cost efficiency and profitability rather than aggressively chasing market share gains in the short term. He also acknowledged that certain Ola Electric scooters have experienced service-related issues, clarifying that these are confined to the Gen 2 products.

“A lot of the service commentary that you see on social media is largely linked to Gen 2 products or before. Gen 3 products are almost half in terms of defect rates on any important metric, whether it's three-month defects, one-month defects, etc., over our previous generations. In Gen 3, the defects are easily fixable, if any, Versus in Gen 2 and all, we had some extra focus on battery and motor, which made the vehicle immobile for the customer.”

Ola Electric has reported that its automotive business turned EBITDA positive for the first time in the second quarter, while its revenue and volumes saw a decline. The company has also cut its full FY26 revenue forecast to Rs 3,000–3,200 crore, down from Rs 4,200 crore – Rs 4,700 crore range forecasted earlier.