Ola's Scooter Factory Isn't Making Many Scooters

Trouble at such a high-profile project is a bad sign for India’s electric vehicle industry

- By Ragini Saxena

Ola Electric Mobility Pvt Ltd., the Indian startup that’s pledged to build the world’s biggest electric scooter factory, distributed a handful of brightly hued bikes to customers in December at its factory in Chennai, complete with drummers and a saxophonist to mark the occasion.

The proceedings couldn’t obscure Ola’s inability so far to live up to its lofty ambitions. The goal of this high-profile startup was to have the $330 million facility making 15% of the world’s e-scooters by summer 2022. Bhavish Aggarwal, Ola’s founder, has described the scooters as a way to spark the country’s electric car industry. “It’s a vehicle we’ve engineered ground-up so India can get a seat at the world EV table,” he told Bloomberg News earlier this year.