Ola Electric's sales footprint shrinks as stores bet on home inverters

A Mint review of January-November statewise vehicle registration data from the government’s Vahan portal shows that Ola Electric failed to post year-on-year growth in any month since February in four of the country’s biggest electric two-wheeler markets—Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. In at least one state and one Union territory, the company recorded zero sales at least once over the past three months, contributing to its slide to fifth position in recent rankings.

The data underscores the strain on Ola Electric’s rapidly expanded retail network, raising questions about whether its home inverter push can offset weakening demand in its core electric two-wheeler business.

Sales fell to fewer than 100 units in at least five states and Union territories during the year, pointing to a broad-based regional slowdown. This decline has come despite the company expanding its store network nearly four-fold in December 2024, from about 800 outlets to nearly 4,000, an expansion that was expected to improve reach and lift volumes.

Between September and November, the company recorded no sales in Jammu & Kashmir, compared with 500 units sold during the same three-month period in 2024. In Goa, Ola Electric’s sales fell 96% to 23 units in September, followed by 22 units in October, before dropping to zero in November, as per the Vahan data. During September-November 2024, the company had sold 784 scooters in the state.

In Maharashtra, one of India’s largest electric two-wheeler markets, Ola Electric recorded an 83% year-on-year fall in November sales to 550 units, after a 77% decline in October to 1,278 units. Karnataka, the company’s home state, showed a similar trend, with sales falling 84% in November to 520 units, following a 71% drop in October to 1,303 units.

In aggregate, Ola Electric’s sales between January and November 2025 declined 52% to 190,274 units, from 393,894 units in the year-ago period. A deeper analysis of registrations across 26 states and Union territories shows that between May and November of the current financial year, the company posted year-on-year growth in just five instances nationwide.

The trend has continued into December, with sales in the first 25 days of the month declining year-on-year in 24 of the 26 states and Union territories. In total, Ola Electric’s sales stood at 197,398 units in 2025, compared with 407,701 units in 2024.

Queries sent to Ola Electric on Friday went unanswered till press time.

Inverter play

As scooter volumes weaken, the company has begun expanding the role of its retail network beyond electric two-wheelers. In October, Ola Electric launched home energy storage products under its new brand, Ola Shakti, including lithium-ion cell home inverters priced between ₹50,000 and ₹2 lakh, which it plans to sell through its owned stores.

Deepesh Rathore, founder at InsightEV, said the company’s expanding store network is now caught in a difficult position amid falling scooter sales. “In a base case scenario, every store on average would need 20 sales per month to break even while Ola's stores are stuck between two and three. Moreover, the problem for these stores is also the fact that there is a huge backlog of servicing."

Rathore explained that the problem for Ola Electric has been the persistent dissatisfaction of the consumers owing to servicing and product issues. “The company's products have continued to pile up at its stores as servicing issue has not been resolved. The sentiment will not improve until fundamental issues with its products are resolved. Only then, it can see a revival in sales prospects."

Against this backdrop, Rathore added that sales of home inverters through these outlets remain uncertain, given the lack of precedent for automobile dealerships cross selling such products.

The company expects the inverter business to generate ₹100 crore in revenue in the January-March quarter, followed by ₹1,000 crore in the next financial year, driven by the same retail network that has yet to arrest the decline in scooter registrations.

“The product goes into the market in around mid-January and goes into the market across all our 2,500-3,000 stores. So, in that sense, we have a very strong distribution also," company’s chairman and managing director Bhavish Aggarwal had said on 6 November in an earnings call.

Aggarwal had made similar assertions in December last year while announcing the expansion of Ola Electric’s retail footprint to nearly 4,000 outlets.

“With our wide D2C network and the touchpoints under our Network Partner Programme, we will cover the entire country beyond tier-I and tier-2 cities," Aggarwal had said.

An investor presentation dated 1 April 2025 showed that the company had 4,436 stores across the country, of which 3,365 are owned by Ola Electric while the rest are operated by network partners. While the company would have expected this expansion to translate into higher sales, the registration data instead suggests a reversal in momentum.

Falling behind

As Ola’s sales weaken, rivals including Ather Energy, Bajaj Auto, TVS Motor Company, and Hero Electric have gained market share. Ather Energy has outpaced Ola Electric since the July-September quarter, while Hero MotoCorp sold more electric scooters than Ola Electric in November, pushing the company to fifth position.

Ather’s sales network has grown from 350 outlets at the start of the financial year to more than 500, with a target of 700 by year-end. Correspondingly, its sales rose 58% between January and December to 198,707 units.

To be sure, Ola Electric has previously maintained that scooter sales are conducted primarily through its online application and website, with physical outlets serving as experience centres where customers can test vehicles and take deliveries.

With widening visibility failing to translate into higher volumes, investor sentiment has also weakened. Ola Electric’s shares have fallen more than 58% this year, compared with a 20% gain in the Nifty Auto index.