Just as the industry was poised to soar, e-scooter makers will have to work fast to win back consumer confidence.
There couldn’t be a more horrifying metaphor for the fortunes of the electric scooter market in India. At least six scooters along with their batteries have spectacularly gone up in flames — all within just a few days — with exact causes still to be determined. One of the first to catch fire belonged to Ola Electric, the EV division of homegrown rideshare Ola. In one instance, an entire truck filled with scooters belonging to Jitendra Electric Vehicles caught fire. In another, a 49-year-old man and his 13-year old daughter tragically died in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu after their newly purchased scooter exploded and proceeded to asphyxiate the father and daughter. Then, a few days ago, an entire dealership of Okinawa scooters burned down, causing a recall of 3,200 scooters. The scooter meltdown is a disaster for all Indian EV players, but no one arguably has it as bad as Ola Electric. Recently, Ola unveiled its $330 million plant in Tamil Nadu and its CEO Bhavish Aggarwal had breezily pronounced that his company would churn out 2 million electric scooters by the end of the year and — in what could only be a delusional flight of fancy — and 10 million of them by 2022. Hubris can result in the unkindest of cuts. First, Ola encountered some serious delivery delays of its snazzy-looking S1 and S1 Pro electric scooters late last year, pushing back the dates for when its pre-booked customers could finally take ownership of their new rides. Then, there was outrage as many received their 2-wheelers without important software features such as hill hold and navigation assist. Ola said it would take up to six months to outfit all their scooters accordingly. And now there are these fires, which neither Aggarwal nor India can afford.
