Ola Electric considering recalling scooters due to recent EV fire, says Bhavish Agarwal

EV battery explodes, killing 1 and injuring 3 in Andhra Pradesh

Spread over 500 acres, the Ola Electric Future Factory was built in a span of six to seven months last year. The S1 Pro, the first scooter by the company was unveiled in August and commercially launched in December last year. So far over 23,000 units have been registered but, the company claims that over 50,000 units have been produced and deliveries are higher than the number of vehicles registered.

Ever since the launch of the Ola Electric scooter, customers have been complaining about battery performance, instances of the battery draining out if unused for a few days, and accidents.

Recently an Ola Electric customer complained about how his son had met with a serious accident due to a fault in regenerative braking. In a statement, Ola Electric had said the customer met with an accident due to over speeding and there wasn't any fault in the scooter.

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Responding to CNBC-TV18's queries on recent breakdowns of Ola Electric scooters, Bhavish Agarwal said, "We are aware of the issues and are resolving them. There is a bit more noise about Ola Electric and more attention on us as we are a new entrant. We are confident about our product and about growing market share."

At the future factory, the company displayed an autonomous electric vehicle that could be launched in global markets in 2023. Bhavish Agarwal also confirmed that the lower-priced S1 would be launched this year. The management also indicated that the company was working towards a sub ten lakh electric vehicle as well.

At a time when there are questions about the supply chains of electric vehicle makers in India, Ola Electric said it gets its cells from LG in Korea, but the battery pack is manufactured and assembled in India. "We get all our electronic components from East Asia, but not from China. Rest is all made and assembled in India," said Agarwal.

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Ola Electric currently has one active assembly line and a capacity for making half a million vehicles in a year. The company is producing close to a thousand scooters per day and would like to increase production to 3,500 per day by the end of the year. The company boasts of an all-women workforce at the factory of approximately 1,700 women and close to 1000 robotic machines on the factory floor.

Ola Electric has faced some questions over rushing to market without adequate testing. Defending his company's testing procedures Bhavish said that the S1 Pro scooter was launched after extensive testing over a year and a half.

However, the company did not answer questions about the actual number of pending bookings, issues with battery performance & thermal management, and why some scooters had suddenly reversed on acceleration.