ONDC to onboard Ola Electric as a delivery partner

Ola Electric is all set to announce a collaboration with ONDC (Open Network for Digital Commerce). The company is likely to deploy its electric scooters for deliveries across product categories on the government's ONDC platform.

Sources told CNBC-TV18 that as part of the collaboration with ONDC, Ola Electric will deploy electric scooters for logistics and last-mile deliveries across India and the announcement is likely to happen within a few weeks. This latest announcement comes ahead of Ola's IPO listing.

Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal took to social media platform X to hint at a collaboration with ONDC. This after a meeting with ONDC CEO Koshy T at Ola's headquarters in Bengaluru.

Koshy, while talking to CNBC-TV18, said, "Ola is already on the ONDC Network as an ONDC food buyer app as part of the Ola app. We are jointly evaluating how Ola could expand its logistics services for sellers across product categories on ONDC Network. They have already experienced the ONDC network through the food category and are considering bringing their full might to further strengthen the network."

"This would be a big commitment from Ola Electric as the logistics partner for ONDC. Cost of deliveries would be reduced by half as a result of this collaboration. This would be the first time that a company will be offering an all electric logistics service", said a source at Ola Cabs.

The source further added that the company would first deploy electric two-wheelers and in future would consider deploying electric three-wheelers and other EV categories for logistics and last-mile deliveries.

The company announced the relaunch of its e-bike taxi services on 16th September this year, operating Ola Electric's S1 scooters in Bengaluru as a pilot project, with rates fixed at Rs 25 for a ride of up to 5 km and Rs 50 for rides of 5 km to 10 km. The company had also launched Ola Parcel services in Bengaluru, as part of a collaboration between Ola and Ola Electric to deploy e-scooters.

Ola had shut down its Quick Commerce platform Ola Dash in 2022. It had also entered the hyperlocal delivery business in 2015 and shut it down in the following year.

Launched in 2022, Ola Electric has sold over 3.32 lakh e-scooters so far and has a market share of almost 35%.