Ola Electric layoffs: Under pressure Ola Electric is laying off 500 to up profitability

Ola Electric is reducing its workforce amid a market share decline, customer complaints and stock price erosion. The job cuts span various departments, but the hardest-hit areas have been manufacturing and supply-chain management, according to sources.

People aware of the ongoing downsizing drive within Ola Electric said the company has cut 300-400 jobs, or under 10% of the workforce, over the past few months. The numbers would go up and as many as 500 employees may be impacted as the process is still ongoing, according to one of the people.

“There is an emphasis on profitability and workforce optimisation is in line with that goal,” said a person close to the company.

Ola Electric did not respond to a request for comment.

Two people in the know of the development said the downsize drive was in the plan for months and set in motion recently. According to one of them, the planned layoff may result in a significant reduction of the workforce strength. Ola has around 4,000 employees on rolls.

“There is high churn to the tune of 50% on an annual basis anyways. If you do not fill in these positions, your people count will naturally come down,” said the person. “On top of that, if you initiate a job cut, it will further reduce the workforce size,” he added.

There is a focus on cost reduction to reduce losses and show profitability in quarterly financials, said the people. Cost-cutting is necessitated by a quarter-on-quarter decline in sales and revenue, they added.Ola Electric’s scooter sales declined 21% sequentially to 98,619 in the July-September period, according to the company’s quarterly results. That resulted in a 26% drop quarter-on-quarter in revenue from operations at ₹1,214 crore. Loss widened 40% to Rs 495 crore.