'Brand is built by product, not by pricing': Ola boss Bhavish Aggarwal
According to the Q2 earning call of Ola Electric, the gross margin for the auto segment stood at 20.6 percent flat on a quarterly basis whereas year-on-year basis it was 12 points up
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Ola Electric founder Bhavish Aggarwal has emphasized on 'pricing basis' of the electric vehicles, and margin structure for deeper penetration. Aggarwal underscored that the EV maker's prime focus is 'product', and then 'volume'.
During the Quarter 2 earning call of the fiscal year 2025, Aggarwal said that brands are built by product, not by pricing.
"Brand is an outcome of product experience of the ownership experience and obviously at the scale at which you do it," he said.
Taking a dig at Ola Electric's peer, Aggarwal argued, "I actually feel these competitors, they're not going to be able to sustain these deep discounts as the industry scales up because they don't have the margin structure".
The entrepreneur added that the electric 2-wheeler maker has deeply invested in vertically integrated manufacturing and technology to sustain deep discounting.
"Technology enables better margins because it brings the cost down," he said.
According to the Q2 earning call of Ola Electric, the gross margin for the auto segment stood at 20.6 percent flat on a quarterly basis whereas year-on-year basis it was 12 points up.
The net loss narrowed in the second quarter as the company reported a 39 percent jump in sales. Ola Electric's net loss stood at Rs 495 crore in the September quarter compared to Rs 524 crore in the same period last year. The revenue from operation jumped to Rs 1,214 crore in Q2.
The company is eyeing focus on expanding the store count. Aggarwal said, " We have about 780 odd stores right now. And we are in the process of expanding the company-owned stores to about 2000 by March".
In September, Ola Electric launched its Network Partner Program under which third parties like multi-brand outlets, and other people who are already in the auto ecosystem from a retail perspective, could sell its product.
Ola Electric has 1,000 such partners live with its products now, he added.
