Ola Electric to open 200 experience centres across India

Ola Electric is venturing into physical retail stores and is planning to open experience stores across India, CEO Bhavish Aggarwal announced in a Twitter post on Sunday. He said the experience centres will enable more people to experience Ola’s products.

While Ola Electric is already operating 20 centres, the brand aims to open around 200 more such facilities by the end of March 2023. The announcement comes amid falling sales of Ola Electric’s flagship Ola S1 Pro electric two-wheeler.

According to Economic Times, Ola had held an internal competition to increase sales by allocating different regions to key executives within the company following a decline in sales of its S1 Pro. These stores would be owned and operated by the company.

Ola Electric’s experience centres will have facilities, including test rides, product demos, and after-sales services for customers, who can make their purchase decision based on them.

For now, the company is involved in the manufacturing of its two flagship e-scooter models—S1 and S1 Pro. The S1 comes with a price tag of Rs 99,999, and the Ola S1 Pro for Rs 1,39,000. These scooters can be purchased from the Ola app and the Ola Electric website.

The Ola S1 is powered by a 3 kWh battery pack and boasts an ARAI-certificated range of 141 km on a full charge. It comes with three riding modes — sports, eco, and normal.

In August 2022, the company announced it would launch its first all-electric car in 2024, which could go from 0 to 100 kilometres per hour (just over 62 mph) in four seconds.

According to reports, Ola laid off around 1,000 employees in July 2022. The company may further cut costs, leading to a reduction in its engineering workforce.