Bhavish Aggarwal announces ‘Valentine’s Day gift’, slashes Ola e-scooter prices by up to ₹25,000

Ola Electric’s Chairman & Managing Director Bhavish Aggarwal recently announced a significant price reduction on their range of e-scooters. This move revealed just in time for February, includes a price cut of up to ₹25,000.

Aggarwal dubbed this gesture a "Valentine’s Day gift" for their cherished customers, emphasising its role as a step towards phasing out the internal combustion engine (ICE) age.

Revised pricing of the S1 portfolio from Feb 16, 2024:

Meanwhile, on February 13, Tata Motors became the first Indian automaker to announce price cuts for its electric vehicle (EV) models. This move came just a day after Tesla, led by Elon Musk, temporarily reduced prices for some Model Y cars in the US to boost sales.

Tata Motors attributed the price cut to the reduced battery cost, the benefit of which has been passed on to the consumer. However, the recently-launched Punch.ev’s introductory prices remain unchanged as they already factor in a reduction in battery cost in the foreseeable future.

The car maker’s move comes when EV penetration in passenger cars continues to hover around 1.5-2%, according to the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA).

Manish Raj Singhania, FADA president, told CNBC-TV18 that after the FAME II subsidies were slashed, there was a price correction and an increase in prices, following which the penetration of EV two-wheelers went down to as low as 3.5-4%. However, it is now back to 5-5.5%, indicating that the market has accepted the new higher price point.

Meanwhile, carmakers globally have said that the pace of EV growth has slowed, creating some uncertainty. For instance, General Motors and Ford had previously cut EV production due to a growth rate that was rising more slowly than previously expected.

In January, Tesla CEO Elon Musk also underscored the near-term struggles, warning last week of a sharp slowdown in sales growth this year.