Ola Electric had opened pre-launch bookings of its electric scooters in July for Rs 499 and had received 1 lakh orders in just 24 hours. The day1 sale of Ola Electric scooters saw four scooters being sold every second.
Bhavesh Agrawal of Ola Electric humbly said the excitement and enthusiasm customers showed for the products remained high throughout. He added, "The last 2 days have been exhilarating and humbling at the same time. We have done over INR 1100 crores in sales! This is unprecedented not just in the automotive industry but it is one of the highest sales in a day (by value) for a single product in Indian e-commerce history! We truly are living in a digital India".
The purchase window is now closed, reservations remain open on the Ola Electric website. The reopening of the purchase window is expected on November 1st, 2021, in time for Diwali. Deliveries will start from October 2021. Buyers will be notified of estimated tentative delivery dates within 72 hours of purchase.
Day 2 of EV era was even better than Day 1! Crossed ₹1100Cr in sales in 2 days! Purchase window will reopen on Nov 1 so reserve now if you haven't already.
— Bhavish Aggarwal (@bhash) September 17, 2021
Thank you India for the love & trust. You are the revolution! https://t.co/oeYPc4fv4M pic.twitter.com/fTTmcFgKfR
Ola bookings - If taken as cash flow - then it comes to 200 cr. We know that only 1 lakh have been booked, so I take it that Bhavish is referring to the value of scooters booked. And the assumption is that all the folks who have booked have paid up. Umm - difficult to digest. I know of one of my friends who has cancelled in the last week. Maybe they have also opened booking for European customers! In Euros it may be more palpable. And maybe Bhavish should focus more on Europe.
One thing that worries me: Scooter has been sold without test rides. How do we judge ergonomics, performance, real life range and after sales service by just looking at numbers? On the subject of range - would love to see what the S1 Pro actually delivers on road. Claim is 180 km. And that is what should set it aside from the Athers of the world. I would still want to wait and watch. On the face of it Ola seems to have worn the Ms Universe competition already. But we need to remember that the Nano had also got 1 lakh bookings - but it still turned out to be a flop.
Also delivery times in October - not seen any so far. January is the earliest that I have seen. But hey, even that’s not too bad. There are a few pinches of salt that need to be taken with Bhavish’s statements. You don’t really require a very large factory for producing EVs. It’s mostly assembly lines. Even if you have to make motors and battery packs in house, the space is much less compared to the machining lines required for IC engines. There is a lot of hype that is required to sell an IPO. All the best to Ola for that!