Ola Electric, the largest electric scooter manufacturer in India, announced on Monday a reduction in the price of its most affordable variant by 12.5 per cent. The move comes as the company, which has been operating at a loss, aims to stimulate sales following the government's subsidy reduction.
Anshul Khandelwal, the marketing chief of Ola Electric, stated that the price of the cheapest variant of its S1X model has been lowered to 69,999 rupees from the previous 79,999 rupees. Additionally, prices for other S1X variants have been decreased by between 5.6 per cent and 9.1 per cent.
What would price cut mean to Ola?
The SoftBank Group-backed company launched the S1X scooters last August last year, just months after the government, in a surprise move, lowered the incentives to buy e-scooters. However, some analysts say the price cuts will hurt Ola.
"Ola is already selling its higher variants of the S1X range at a loss. Selling the base variant at a lower price is not feasible financially and this is not something they can do forever," said a Mumbai-based analyst, declining to be named as they are not authorised to speak to the media. The Bengaluru-based company sold 326,443 e-scooters in fiscal 2024. While it beat its target of 300,000, it had lowered that estimate by two-thirds.
Check price of Ola's e-scooter
Ola's cheapest e-scooter costs less than the lowest-priced variants at TVS Motor (TVSM.NS), opens new tab and Hero MotoCorp (HROM.NS), opens new tab-backed Ather, which cost above 100,000 rupees. However, it costs less than Honda's (7267.T), opens new tab Activa, India's top-selling petrol scooter, which retails at 78,000-82,000 rupees.
Ola, which started selling e-scooters in 2021, holds a 35% market share, while TVS and Ather control 19% and 12%, respectively of the market, as per government data. India's e-scooter market accounted for 5% of total two-wheeler sales in fiscal 2024, according to industry data.
(With inputs from Reuters)
