NEW DELHI: India's Ola Electric said it would lay off 5% of its workforce in a restructuring effort aimed at improving profitability through greater automation.
The company is "doubling down" on speed and discipline through increased automation across its front-end operations, it said in a statement, adding that it is building a "leaner organisation" positioned for long-term, profitable growth.
The layoffs translate to roughly 620 jobs, based on the company's headcount of 12,396 employees as of March 31, 2025, according to its annual report and Reuters calculations.
The SoftBank-backed company had slashed more than 1,000 jobs at its front-end operations in March last year, citing increased automation, which improved margins.
Ola Electric, once commanding half of India's e-scooter market, has lost ground to legacy players such as Bajaj Auto and TVS Motor, which widened distribution and rolled out competing models, as well as to rival Ather Energy.
After its stellar stock market debut in August 2024, the company was hit by a series of setbacks, from servicing delays to registration issues, knocking it down the pecking order of India's electric two-wheeler market.
While the company's shares doubled within weeks of its listing, rising customer complaints over service issues and stalling sales have since pushed its stock down by more than 57%.
MARCH TO PROFITABILITY
Sales for Ola Electric, which is yet to turn a profit, slumped 51% in 2025, government data showed, with registration issues impacting volumes early on in the year.
During its second-quarter earnings, Ola lowered full-year revenue target and maintained its margin forecast for the core automotive business as it shifts focus to profitability over volumes.
The Bengaluru-based firm expects fiscal 2026 revenue to be between 30 billion rupees and 32 billion rupees (RM1.288bil and RM1.374bil), compared with 42 billion - 47 billion rupees (RM1.8bil and RM2.018bil) forecast earlier.
Its revenue was 46.65 billion rupees (RM2.003bil) in fiscal 2025.
Ola is betting on in-house cell manufacturing to turn a profit, and recently announced that it would separately sell those cells to startups and businesses.
