Why Ola Electric’s February Sales Figure Doesn’t Match Govt Records

Bhavish Aggarwal-led Ola Electric, often considered as India’s EV giant, has been navigating a rough patch lately due to rising troubles around delivery delays, discrepancy in sales figure, rising losses, and after-sales-service problems. The e-scooter maker came under latest scrutiny after a mismatch reflected between its claimed February sales and actual registrations.

This gap has caught the government’s attention, as ministries of heavy industries, road transport, and highways have sought information from the company to clarify Ola's sales figures. These queries pertain to the “large gap” in vehicle registration as per the VAHAN portal and sales as per the company’s regulatory filing dated February 28, 2025, for the month of February this year.

Besides this, the ministries have also asked for clarification on reports “regarding non-compliance to the requirement of trade certificate”.

What Went Wrong?

In February 28 filing, the EV giant reported the sale of more than 25,000 units. However, the vehicle registration tally from the government portal tells a different story. As per the data, the portal had registration of only 8,600 Ola Electric scooters during the same time period.

This large gap --- roughly around one-third of the sales figure --- triggered a fresh query from the government. On February 19, Ola had also acknowledged that the ongoing negotiations with vendors may temporarily delay vehicle registrations. The company was renegotiating the terms of agreement with it agencies, Rosmerta Digital Services Pvt Ltd and Shimnit India Pvt Ltd, to reduce cost and enhance registration process efficiencies.

To this, Ola responded on March 21, sharing details about vehicle bookings without clarifying if these were invoiced or delivered to customers.  The company reportedly counted its yet-to-be launched electric motorcycles and e-scooter bookings in its February sales number, as per Bloomberg reports.

The SoftBank-backed firm told the road ministry that it included customer bookings for 10,866 third-generation e-scooters as well as 1,395 Roadster X motorcycles in its February sales. The company termed them as “confirmed orders”. These roadster motorcycles have not been launched in the market so far. And the delivery of its third-gen scooter started in March. Together, these two categories accounted for approximately 50% of the 25,207 February sales figures.

But the government on March 31 wrote a letter to Ola Electric, asking the e-scooter maker to revise the figures and include those vehicles that were invoiced in its February data.