Ola's 2-pronged strategy for sustainable growth
Economic Times, 30 Jul '24
Ola Electric Mobility is now all set to float the country's first initial public offering (IPO) of an electric vehicle (EV) company on August 2nd, 2024.
While it is the leading player in terms of sales, legacy two-wheeler companies are also making strides to lead the game.
Amidst this, the electric two-wheeler maker's founder, Bhavish Aggarwal shared his two-pointed strategy for the sustainable growth of the company.
"We have already built a market position for us in the EV space. We are also getting there in terms of margin of leap, as the rest are far behind," Aggarwal said, in a press conference on 29th July, 2024.
"But EVs are an industry effort. We are the leaders in terms of numbers and we have also built a very unique strategy- vertically integrated manufacturing, and core R&D. This has helped us build market leadership, as well as launch products sooner into the market," he further added.
"Earlier, the incumbents were thinking EVs were not relevant. Now they are coming into this industry as they have understood that EV is the future," Aggarwal said.
"The winning strategy in EVs is going to be the company which will be able to build future technologies as well as create a manufacturing ecosystem- which is different for EVs than the ICEs. And this is where we have got our story," he continued.
Upcoming IPO to reduce the finance cost
The bidding for anchor investors in Ola's IPO will open for a day on August 1st and the initial share sale will conclude on August 6th. The company aims to raise USD 734 million in the upcoming IPO.
Ola Electric, which posted a loss of Rs. 15.8 billion (US$ 190 million) in FY24, said it will use Rs. 8 billion from the IPO proceeds to reduce the debt. The EV maker posted a loss of Rs. 14.7 billion in FY23 and Rs. 7.8 billion in FY22.
A significant part of the proceeds will also be used for capacity expansion of its cell manufacturing plant and R&D for future technologies and products.
On August 15th 2023, the EV maker announced a line-up of electric motorcycles-- Cruiser, Adventure, Roadster and Diamondhead. It expects to begin the delivery of these motorcycles in the first half of FY 2025-26.
Aggarwal stated that the company will first focus on scaling the Indian market and then plan for exports in the long term strategy.
