Ola Electric's Market Share Shrinks Sharply in Q1 FY26
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Ola Electric Mobility Ltd has kicked off FY26 on a weak footing, with its electric two-wheeler sales tumbling by 47 per cent year-on-year to 57,000 units in the April–June quarter. The Bhavish Aggarwal-led company, once the undisputed leader in the segment, has seen its market share fall to 20 per cent from nearly 50 per cent a year ago, according to data from the government's Vahan portal, Mint reported.
Meanwhile, legacy manufacturers have surged ahead. TVS Motor topped the electric two-wheeler chart in Q1 with 68,682 units sold, while Bajaj Auto followed closely with 62,629 units. Ather Energy, now a publicly listed firm, more than doubled its sales to nearly 40,000 units. The overall electric two-wheeler (E2W) market expanded 31 per cent in Q1 to 291,294 units. TVS held 24 per cent of the market, Bajaj 22 per cent, and Ather 14 per cent.
By comparison, Ola had ended FY25 with a 30 per cent market share, while TVS, Bajaj, and Ather held 21 per cent, 20 per cent, and 11 per cent respectively. The reversal in fortunes signals deeper trouble for Ola, which is also grappling with mounting financial pressure. Its net loss widened to INR 2,276 crore in FY25 from INR 1,584 crore the previous year, as revenue slipped to INR 4,514 crore from INR 5,010 crore. Credit rating agency Icra downgraded debt worth INR 1,887 crore of Ola Electric Technologies Pvt Ltd, citing "a longer-than-expected period of cash burn."
"The downgrade of ratings and continuation of the Negative outlook are due to slower-than-expected scale-up in OET's electric two-wheeler sales volumes," Icra said in a note dated May 1, said Mint.
Ola has attributed part of the Q1 disruption to delays in vehicle registration, caused by renegotiations with registration agencies earlier this year. The company moved the entire process in-house, but the backlog from February and March spilled over into the new fiscal. Despite expanding its retail footprint from 800 to over 4,000 outlets under Project Vistaar, Ola has not been able to stop the erosion in its market position.
Aggarwal acknowledged the company's struggles during its May 29 earnings call. "In the last quarter or two, we have lost market share… But industry is today at a state where roughly the top three players are equal," he said, adding that future growth would depend on product innovation and better balance between profitability and scale.
Hero MotoCorp, which sold around 4,000 units monthly in FY25, is now aiming for 25,000–30,000 monthly sales within two years. The legacy auto giants are consolidating their lead and Ola's early dominance is slipping fast.
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