The Fall Of Bhavish Aggarwal. Is He Setting Fire To Ola’s Future?

What is common among these three startup founders, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Ravindran Byju and Ashneer Grover?

They are visionary, very successful, have a lot of money, they are youth icons, and the media has made all three of them the superstars of New India. But in all three, a God complex has come somewhere.

They felt they were above the rules, laws, customers, and industry experts. All three have fallen to the ground. After the RBI crackdown and the Paytm payments bank was shut down, Vijay Shekhar Sharma is trying to save Paytm.

Ravindran Byju, after doing scams in financial accounting and cheating customers, is standing on the verge of bankruptcy. And Shark, Ashneer Grover, these days when his wife was about to be arrested in a fraud case, he quietly settled with his previous company.

All three of them had received warnings. Experts had warned them for years, but they didn’t listen. They thought they had the unlimited support of the public and the government.

But after a while, when the time comes, their PR mechanism and the mask of nationalism can’t save them. In fact, because of these bad boys, the reputation of the startup ecosystem is ruined. And this lousy startup in India can now have another name on the list.

Bhavish Aggarwal of Ola Electric 

There is no doubt that Bhavish Aggarwal is a brilliant guy. He is from IIT. He is counted among the world’s youngest billionaires. But in his quest to become India’s Elon Musk, he set such a fire that Ola Electric could be destroyed. Bhavish was recently in the news when he fought with comedian Kunal Kamra on Twitter.

Kamra shared a picture of electric scooters on Twitter in front of the Ola Service Center and asked Bhavish if this is the correct behaviour with customers when two-wheelers are a lifeline for many in our country, not a luxury to stand in the service centre.

Kunal Kamra tagged the road transport minister and the Department of Consumer Affairs in his tweet. It was a Sunday. Kamra’s tweet got some retweets.

The matter would have ended there. And anyway, Kamra has not tweeted anything new.

Type Ola service on Twitter or Google. You will get the whole story of such customers who are crying. But for some reason, Bhavish Aggarwal was free on Sunday. Bhavish says that the concept of weekend rest is a very Western concept.

He wants the whole country to work for seven days. But for some reason, he was not working on Sunday. And he started responding to Kunal Kamra. He is saying that Kunal Kamra is a failed comedian. If he is worried, come to Ola’s service centre and get a job. 

This behaviour is often seen in Bhavish’s icon, Elon Musk. Catch any critic, insult or abuse. But wait to answer the question. And the rest of the work will be done by Musk’s army. But Bhavish forgot that it is challenging to afford Musk’s arrogance. Musk is the wealthiest person in the world. Twitter is his property.

His fan base swears by his electric cars. They launch an 18-floor tall rocket and catch it back. Kamra was stating the truth about Ola. That Ola scooter went down, caught fire, or stopped working. Bhavish Aggarwal thought that he could insult and solve the problem.

The next day, Ola’s electric share slipped by 9%. Kamra’s fans were like, a comedian has destroyed Ola Electric’s stock. Is that true? No Because Bhavish, out of his arrogance, gave a result to the Streisand effect. 

Now, what is this Streisand effect?

In 2003, famous actress-singer Barbara Streisand tried to suppress an aerial photograph. The photograph would have kept the map of her house in front of the world. But the opposite happened. She tried to suppress this photo by filing a case in court. It so happened that hundreds of people saw that photo. Along with that, there was negative publicity.

So, the effect in Streisand is the opposite. Kamra did not bring down the Ola stocks. Bhavish Aggarwal has done that himself by exposing himself to the world.

And now, Ola’s problems are increasing day by day. Central Consumer Protection Authority, or CCPA, has notified Ola Electric.

Because complaints against Ola are increasing day by day. More than 10,000 officially registered complaints on the National Consumer Helpline regarding Ola have occurred in the last year. 

• 3389 service delay complaints, 
• 1899 delays in delivery of new vehicles, 
• and 1459 unfulfilled promises of service.

These complaints clearly show that Ola Electric has many problems. Manufacturing defects, partial or no refunds, on-booking cancellations, recurring defects, service deficits, and multiple battery issues.

A report published in The Morning Context has shown that Ola Electric can never be profitable. It is the same publication that predicted the collapse of Byju’s. Byju Ravindran did not take it seriously. So, is Ola going to have a happy birthday?

In today’s episode of Deshbhakt, we will see how the country’s biggest EV manufacturer has hit a nail on its foot.

Why should the startup ecosystem learn from Bhavish Aggarwal? Can Ola Electrify be saved? Or will it end up like Paytm and Byju’s?

Today, many Ola Electric customers are shedding tears of blood. Some people are crying and singing songs in front of the service centre. One customer got fed up with Ola Electric and set it on fire in the showroom. He must have thought that they set fire before they caught fire on the road.

A person cannot find a solution to this. But think that a person who gives a down payment with great difficulty gives EMI, buys an electric scooter, so that he can save some money from the price of petrol in a month. But the scooter breaks down every other day, and Ola does not help. 

A team from News Laundry went to the Ola service centre to talk to some customers. Bhavish can note this. This is not a failed comedian like Kamra but your loyal customer.

I have been having problems since I bought this. I have spent Rs 8000 on it. What happened on 30th September? It didn’t work after that I called a crane and sent it to their service centre. So either there is a part in Ola Scooter that catches fire, or there is a part that makes people angry.

The biggest issue of Ola Electric is HMI, Human Machine Interface which is like an operating system for an electric scooter. If this component fails, the entire scooter will be in a bad state. And in Ola Electric, HMI’s failure rate is 75%. The failure rate of 3 out of 4 scooters. The manufacturer of HMI is surprised and doesn’t know what the problem is Ola says that it could be your fault.

The company that made the human-machine interface tried to find out where the problem originated. They did a thorough investigation. Because they thought that they had made this complicated interface based on Ola’s design parameters.

The parts of the scooter are not in sync with the design, hence the failures. Because the hardware and software are mismatched. This is more important in an electric scooter. It cannot be corrected by tilting the scooter.

The HMI is important in hardware design. So, many problems are arising because of this. This is why we see problems with charging and vibration in scooters; a widespread problem is that scooters die.

Ola stops working, and then it’s over. And this is now being called a significant reason for the fire in Ola scooters. The Morning Context reports that even after knowing these problems, Ola Electric did not take a break. Their agenda was to sell scooters at the rate of 25%, which is okay.  Wait to solve this 75% failure rate.

For that, they would have to go back to the drawing board. It would have taken time and money for that. But there was going to be an extensive IPO listing. A lot of money was going to come. And the hype was also positive at that time.

But the result of this decision is clear today. If anyone visits any Ola showroom, you will see more already broken and old, bad scooters than new ones. The customers have left the old ones at Ola’s door, hoping they will be fixed someday.

And look at Bhavish Agarwal; he is not even ashamed. More than 80,000 scooters are now reaching the service centre for repair per month.

But in such a situation, where the rope has been burnt, Bhavish Aggarwal’s pride did not shatter in a country where having an IIT degree makes you non-biological; their humility has what value?

There is so much money. So, then, whatever they are doing, they must have thought of something. But since December 2021, Ola has been delivering scooters since December. These problems have been coming since then. It was a new company then. The situation can be understood. But he must be learning. He must be making mistakes.

He bought the scooter design from somewhere in Europe. He didn’t develop or test it in India. But even after 3 years, there is no excuse for this.

The panel gap issue still exists. The battery issue still exists.

The design flaw that was there in the beginning is still there. The product did not improve, but his behaviour could have improved. If someone criticises, at least dare to face it. He is the founder. 

Bhavish Aggarwal just exposed the company. However, the faulty design and pathetic service of Ola scooters are part of the story. The second aspect is that the future of the Indian EV market is in danger. One can see why two-wheeler players like Hero, Bajaj, and TVS have yet to enter the EV market.

It is a complicated issue. But listen carefully. Bhavish Aggarwal considers himself a wealth creator. And the one who questions him is like working against the country

So, Morning Context asked a simple question. If he is a wealth creator, when will Ola Electric earn money?

For this, Ujjwal Nanavati of Morning Context searched through Red Herring Prospectus before Ola’s IPO. In this Red Herring Prospectus, the company has to make all the declarations, and all the numbers must be kept in front of you by law.

There is a process in accounting, high or low method. All the company’s fixed and variable costs are included. After applying this formula, you can find out the breakeven point of Ola Electric. 

The breakeven point of Ola is 22,40,000 scooters.

It is when the cost of the scooter and wages will be the same. The company will have to sell so many scooters to earn money. Ola has sold 3,30,000 scooters. Despite first mover advantage and hype, the market share will fall as dominant players enter in the coming years.

But let’s assume that EV market growth is explosive. But still, imagine you have to sell 19 lakh scooters yearly which is more than their production capacity. But for this, Ola will have to increase production and maintain a 50% market share even after 8-10 years.

The truth is that Ola is using only 35% of its production capacity. In India, unlike Tesla, people do not have to wait in line for an Ola electric scooter.

And Bhavish Aggarwal has already ditched the Ola car plan. Then what about the big Ola electric IPO? People have invested money.

Paytm’s IPO was also a big hit. Byju was India’s most valuable unicorn. Bhavish Aggarwal got a lot of hype. No one asks about failing cab business. They have yet to learn what their new AI company does.

The CEO of Krutrim may not know, and perhaps that’s why he left the job. But they get a lot of funding. Maybe when Bhavish Aggarwal talked of hiring Kunal Kamra, he was not joking. He needed people. Because no one wants to work with Bhavish Aggarwal.

In Ola, the average time an employee is employed is 11 months. OlaCab CEO Hemant Bakshi packed up in 4 months. CFO Karthik Gupta stayed for 7 months. Ola Electric’s attrition rate is 50% annually. And now, the same story is repeating in Bhavish’s new company, Krutrim AI.

Ravi Jain has resigned from the position of Business Head. Ola’s electric scooter’s first-mover advantage is now disappearing. Legacy 2-wheeler companies have already prepared their products, R&D, and testing. They wanted to launch something other than a substandard product in the market.

They love their brand value. So, Ola’s domination is going to end soon. Already, Ola’s market domination is by slim margin vehicles; Ola’s share is in the two-wheeler space, and electric and petrol vehicles are only 2%. It will take much work to save this 2% in the coming days. Even after a billion-dollar investment, 5 years later, Ola has only one product to show that needs to be fixed.

Ola’s car-related team has been fired

Ola showcased an electric motorcycle concept, but no one knows anything beyond that. Ola is at a considerable loss. There is no product portfolio. And if the government subsidy is removed, it won’t be easy. And even if Ola celebrates its birthday, then it’s okay. Already, an IPO has happened.

The retail investor will have to bear the brunt. Like it happened in Paytm and Nykaa. Bhavish has a new jumla, as he jumped from Ola Cabs to Ola electric. Now insiders say Bhavish Aggarwal is spending more time on Krutrim AI. We will see what is happening in Krutrim AI. We have already seen many bugs and errors.

But Bhavish Aggarwal knows how to spot hot and new technology. He knows how to get funding. But if Kunal Kamra is a flop comedian, then how successful a businessman is Bhavish Agarwal?

Elon Musk has created dozens of companies, and many of them are profitable. But Bhavish’s track record could be better. 

• Ola cabs? Struggling
• Ola Financial Services? Shutdown
• Ola Fleet Technologies? Shutdown
• Ola Store, Ola Dash, Ola Food?
• All experiments fail.

So, before pointing out others’ failures, look at yourself. Yes, it raised a lot of money from investors. And the biggest in our country is money. So, we have to accept this. Finally, can Ola Electric be saved?

Do Ola’s customers have any hope? If anyone has bought Ola’s stocks, will they remain at a loss? Can Kunal Kamra and Bhavish Aggarwal ever shake hands in the future?

It is possible that Bhavish Aggarwal comes to his senses and learns something from his idols, Elon Musk and Ratan Tata. An influential figure like Elon Musk has to give up and correct his course. His strategy is called JDART. In simple words, joking, deleting, and apologising for responsive tweets.

Bhavish Aggarwal has not apologised for his tweets or deleted those disgusting tweets. He should learn from Ratan Tata. After his death, he tweeted him as his hero. But Tata’s critics will also agree that the entire group used to treat their staff with respect. So, Bhavish Aggarwal should stop being a toxic employer. The company’s service will improve.