New Delhi: Ashish Thakur, Global Service Head at Bangalore-based EV maker Ola Electric, quit the company last month. He was instrumental in giving shape to Ola’s service department from scratch and building the D2C business model.
According to his profile on the professional networking site LinkedIn, Thakur has over 26 years of experience in the domain. He resigned in less than 3 years at Ola, which manufactures the S1 series of electric scooters. Prior to joining the EV maker in March 2022, he was associated with Maruti Suzuki for over 23 years, where he worked as the regional and zonal service head at multiple territories of the country.
Now, Thakur has joined TVS Motor Company as the Associate Vice President of Service & Customer Care for its EV Business.
It may be noted that as the competition intensifies in the electric two wheeler space in India, OEMs are tightening their grip across the ecosystem. Ola Electric has been leading the market in terms of volumes, closely followed by established two wheeler makers TVS Motor and Bajaj Auto. However, Ola’s market share has been sharply declining over the previous months, owing to increased competition.
In June, ETAuto reported the resignation of Ola’s Head of Indirect Purchase.
During the past months, Bhavish Aggarwal-led Ola has been dealing with a growing number of customer complaints related to service issues. The electric scooter maker’s service centers were overwhelmed with around 80,000 complaints monthly, leading to long wait times, overburdened staff, and growing customer dissatisfaction.
The issue also gained momentum after a recent social media exchange between Aggarwal and stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra on the platform X (formerly Twitter). The exchange began when Kamra highlighted the problems faced by customers regarding Ola Electric’s service quality.
In October, the company came under scanner after the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) issued a show cause notice to Ola Electric, for alleged violation of consumer rights, misleading advertisements and unfair trade practices. This followed a wave of over 10,000 complaints received on the National Consumer Helpline (NCH).
After receiving a show-cause notice, Ola Electric claimed to have resolved 99.1% of its customer issues. However, this claim was proven incorrect following a cross-verification by the CCPA.
As per the latest reports, the Consumer Affairs Ministry has issued a fresh order and instructed the Director General (DG) Investigation, an investigative arm of CCPA to conduct a detailed investigation into Ola Electric.
Electric two wheelers take up the largest share in India’s EV industry. During the January- October 2024 period, the segment clocked sales of 9.54 lakh units, when compared to 6.92 lakh units in the corresponding period of last year.
Going forward, this segment is expected to intensify further as multiple players introduce products across various price points and specifications to meet the growing customer demand.
