Ola Electric Bikes Launch On Track

Quick News Highlights:

- Bhavish Aggarwal has said that Ola Electric bikes will be launched by early 2025

- Also, Ola’s electric scooters will come fitted with batteries developed in-house by then

- This will help the EV maker reduce the scooter’s costs

During a recent press briefing, Ola Electric’s CEO, Bhavish Aggarwal, said that the EV maker will launch a few variants of its bikes by early 2025. He also announced that by early next year, Ola Electric’s scooters will come fitted with lithium-ion battery cells manufactured by the EV maker themselves in India, in order to lessen dependency on imported batteries and also reduce the scooter’s costs in the process. 

The statement about the bike’s launch timeline is more or less in line with what Ola Electric revealed in a document filed for IPO (Initial Public Offering) purposes. In that document, the EV maker said that it expected to begin deliveries of the bikes in the first half of fiscal year 2026, which means that the first one could be launched between April and September 2025. 

We think that the first bike to be launched by the EV maker will be an affordable one with performance expected to be similar to a 125cc petrol-powered commuter bike. And it could be the simpler looking Roadster bike seen in the design patents of three Ola bikes recently. It gets a hub-mounted motor, telescopic fork, twin shock absorbers and a front disc and rear drum brake setup. 

Regarding the batteries, Indian manufacturers are heavily reliant on them being imported from other countries. This makes the electric scooters quite costly to buy compared to their petrol-powered counterparts. Government subsidies have somewhat kept the costs in check till now. But the end of the FAME 2 {Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India} scheme on March 31, 2024 and comparatively reduced subsidies under EMPS 2024 (Electric Mobility Promotion Scheme 2024) have driven up the prices. As a result, EV manufacturers are looking towards adapting to a future where they are not reliant on government subsidies to sell their vehicles. And a move like developing their own batteries in-house instead of importing them is surely a step in the right direction.