New Delhi: Ashish Thakur, Global Service Head at the Bangalore-based EV maker Ola Electric, has quit the company. He has joined TVS Motor Company as the Associate Vice President of Service & Customer Care for the EV Business.
Thakur, who has over 26 years of experience in the domain, resigned in less than 3 years at Ola.
Prior to joining the electric scooter 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.
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, which makes the S1 series of electric scooters, 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.
During the past months, Bhavish Aggarwal-led Ola has also 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 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, 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 the show-cause notice, Ola Electric claimed to have resolved 99.1% of its customer issues. However, this claim was seen as 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.
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