softbank-backed ola electric faces a tough road: share price is down 53%, market share is sinking to 11.5%, and q2 revenue fell 43%. chairman aggrawal is pivoting hard with ola shakti home batteries (starting ₹29,999) to revive the business.
The big risk: ola’s core business is showing “visible strain”
yaar, the vibe has shifted at ola electric. they were the darlings of the investor world, right? blockbuster ipo, four times oversubscribed. that happened. now? their share price is plunging—down nearly 53% this year, and they are struggling to find backers for their latest ₹1,500 crore fundraising push. investors are balking.
the company’s core e-scooter business is facing a zabardast problem:
Revenue drop: 43% fall in the last quarter.
Sales crash: 47% drop in scooter sales.
Market share: fell from a leading 30% last year to just 11.5% in october. they are barely ahead of hero.
analysts at kotak securities are not holding back, warning of “visible strain.” without fixing the volume issues, the fragility could “rapidly escalate into a full-blown crisis.” it’s an ongoing struggle against players like bajaj, tvs, and ather who are now leading the segment.
The pivot: bhavish aggrawal bets big on ‘shakti’
chairman bhavish aggrawal’s comeback plan? pivot hard into energy storage. this is the new hope, or nothing.
he’s betting on a new line called ola shakti . this is home battery storage for homes and small businesses, using ola’s own proprietary 4680 bharat battery cells.
Price point: the smaller, more portable units start at a competitive ₹29,999, which is much cheaper than those bigger powerwall rivals. the systems meant for whole home backup are priced around ₹1.2 lakh.
Ambition: aggrawal is projecting the battery segment to hit ₹100 crore in revenue in the march quarter and then a massive ₹1,000 crore by the end of the next fiscal year. that would be nearly one-third of ola’s projected total revenue.
The tough road ahead: lead-acid vs. lithium-ion
the thing is, experts are cautioning that the home battery market is not a magic fix. it’s capital-intensive, and highly competitive. most indian households are used to cheap, traditional lead-acid backup systems. ola’s lithium-ion solution is a different beast—more expensive, but better performance.
ola will need a strong sales network and a lot of consumer education to convince people to switch from the old inverter-battery setup. a purely retail focus may face serious hurdles against established giants like luminous and exide.
aggrawal is focusing on cost efficiency, margin improvement, and bringing motorcycles into the mix. but analysts say the turnaround story depends entirely on whether they can stabilize that core automotive business alongside the battery pivot. investors are watching very, very closely. it’s an unfolding situation.
