ola electric: Exodus at Ola Continues: EV division’s head sales and four others quit in less than a year

According to two sources aware of the matter, the latest in the line is Pankaj Sharma who resigned as Head- Sales and Distribution, India, in Ola Electric Mobility. He joined the company in Jun 2021 from Royal Enfield. Sharma had a long innings with Maruti Suzuki India where he worked from 2004 to 2012 when he moved to Volkswagen in India.

Earlier another senior executive from the manufacturing side Shaji Titus, Senior Director Manufacturing, superannuated in 17 months of joining, not a very common practice in the industry to appoint people at the leadership team to such a short stint.

In October 2021, Gurinder Singh Sukhija quit the ride-hailing major as senior director and head customer partner support operations and joined another electric two-wheeler startup Ather Energy as head ownership management. In November 2021, Joseph Thomas, head of quality assurance quit the company within a year.

Murali Sashidharan left Ola as head of communications strategy, mobility, and EV business in the same month. He also made a jump shift to Ather Energy as head of communications and government affairs.

According to another person who is aware of the developments in the company, Vishwanathan Ramesh, Vice President-Manufacturing at Ola Electric has also tendered his resignation.

We reached out to Ola for their response to which they declined to comment.

The group has been facing the cracks at the top deck with at least three co-founders Ankit Jain, Ankit Bhati, and Anand Shah left the company in the past.

Sanjay Bhan, who joined Ola Electric in December 2019 as Chief Business officer resigned from his position in just 10 months. Bhan had moved to Ola after seven years of association with Hero MotoCorp. After leaving Ola he returned to Hero MotoCorp as Head -Global Business.

Ola Electric, now valued at USD 5 billion has built the Futurefactory, claimed to be the world’s largest two-wheeler manufacturing facility. Ola S1 electric scooter and Ola S1 Pro are built here and sold in an entirely new and disruptive direct-to-consumer marketing model with fully digital purchase coupled with home test rides and doorstep delivery and after-sales service, the company said.

However, since its launch, Ola Electric did not have a smooth ride as the booking website faced glitches. The customers’ complaints about delays and glitches in the scooters have been pouring in on social media.

Earlier this year Ola raised another USD 200 million from Tekne Private Ventures, Alpine Opportunity Fund, Edelweiss, and others. The latest round values the company at USD 5 billion.