Ola Electric to ride into two-wheeler market with scooter launch on Aug 15

Ola to share full specs and details of the electric scooter and the availability dates on the launch day

Ola Electric's maiden scooter offering will get formally launched on August 15, coinciding with India's Independence Day, company’s founder Bhavish Aggarwal wrote on the micro blogging site Twitter. The launch will mark Ola Electric’s formal entry in the world's largest two-wheeler market.

Ola would share full specifications and details of the electric scooter and the availability dates on the launch day, he said. “Thanks to all who have reserved our scooter! Planning a launch event for the Ola Scooter on 15th August. Will share full specs and details on product and availability dates. Looking forward to it!” Aggarwal said in a tweet on August 3.

The SoftBank-backed firm is expected to price its electric scooter very aggressively in the range of Rs 85,000-Rs 1.1 lakh. Seven out of every ten internal combustion engine (ICE)-powered scooters sold in India are positioned in this price bracket. Even after the subsidies and incentives, prices of quite a few variants of the other high speed e-scooter brands are upwards of Rs one lakh and Ola’s aggressive pricing could disrupt the market in the medium to short term.

A policy-push to electric mobility by the central and state governments coupled with soaring petrol prices has brought e-two wheelers to the centre-stage of the EV evolution in India. Riding on it, the Bhavesh Agarwal-run is eyeing half the market of ICE and EVs. Scooters account for 6.5 million units per annum in the 21 million per annum two wheeler market.

To be offered in 10 colour options including blue, black, white, grey and shades of red and yellow. Ola Electric opened reservations for its electric scooter for a refundable deposit of Rs 499 on July 15. It had received over 1 lakh bookings within the first 24 hours, the company claimed.

Ola is investing Rs 2,400 crore to set up a plant which will have a capacity to produce 10 million vehicles by next year. Earlier, it had announced that the plant would achieve two million capacity by the middle of this year.