Ola sees high-profile exits amid govt scrutiny, user complaints

NEW DELHI: As the electric e-scooter maker Ola Electric faces government scrutiny and consumer complaints, a couple of its top-notch executives have quit, the latest being its chief marketing officer Varun Dubey.

The company confirmed that Dubey is leaving the company due to “personal reasons”.

Earlier, Dinesh Radhakrishnan who was the chief technology officer (CTO) at Ola Electric moved on from the company. According to his LinkedIn profile, he was appointed CTO at Ola Electric in May last year. Meanwhile, Arun Sirdeshmukh who was head of Ola Cars, which is the used car commerce division of the company, announced his departure from the company.

The high-profile exits come at a time when Ola is reportedly planning its IPO this year at a lower valuation than planned earlier as several startups’ IPOs have proved to be a nightmare for the investors.

Meanwhile, the preliminary findings from the government-constituted probe committee on electric vehicle (EV) fires found issues with battery cells/design in nearly all of the electric two-wheeler (2W) fire incidents in the country.

The committee was constituted last month in the wake of EV fires and battery blasts in e-scooters belonging to Okinawa Autotech, Boom Motor, Pure EV, Jitendra EV, and Ola Electric.

The experts found defects in battery cells as well as battery design in nearly all EV fires and will now work individually with the EV manufacturers to resolve respective battery issues in their vehicles.

Ola Electric had said in a statement they have commissioned world-class agencies, “in addition to our own investigation, to perform an internal assessment on the root cause”. “As per the preliminary assessment of these experts, it was likely an isolated thermal incident,” the company said.

Ola Electric voluntarily recalled 1,441 vehicles to conduct pre-emptive diagnostics and health checks on scooters in that specific batch. EV makers have recalled the faulty batches amid the heat.