Listed electric scooter maker Ola Electric announced its first-ever range of electric motorcycles, called the Roadster. The Roadster has been launched in three different variations — Roadster Pro, Roadster and Roadster X — at introductory prices of between Rs 74,999 to Rs 2,49,999. All three models are open for registration.
The cheaper Roadster X and Roadster models, with battery power ranging between 2.5 KwH (kilowatt hour) and 6 Kwh, will begin deliveries in the final quarter of the fiscal year 2025. The premium Roadster Pro, with 8 KwH and 16 KwH variants, will be available from Diwali 2025, i.e. around November 2025, founder Bhavish Aggarwal said.
“65% of the overall two-wheeler market is motorbikes, and though electric penetration in the scooter category has already reached 21%, in the bike category it is still at 1%… it naturally makes sense for us to disrupt bikes next,” Aggarwal said.
The vehicles will compete with the likes of TVS Motor-backed Ultraviolette Automotive, which is looking to scale sales up to 5,000-6,000 vehicles by the end of FY25 and is set to begin sales of its flagship F77 range of bikes in European markets, ET had reported in April.
Quick commerce foray
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Ola Electric’s sister firm, Ola Cabs, on Thursday rebranded itself as Ola Consumer to expand its services beyond ride-hailing. The firm also launched fully automated dark stores for usage in the government-backed Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC).
The dark stores will be available from the end of the calendar year 2024 and will be offered to direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands and other sellers on the ONDC platform. “We’re not looking to sell to or compete with the existing quick commerce players,” Aggarwal said.
ET had reported on August 8 that Ola was planning on setting up its own dark stores and launching its own Unified Payments Interface (UPI) offering for consumers. On Thursday, Ola also launched Ola Pay, which allows payments for rides, food and groceries through UPI on the Ola app.
The automated dark stores will be placed inside container-like structures, designed and manufactured in-house by Ola, Aggarwal said. The dark stores will be able to store 1.2 lakh items with automated storage and restocking, serving 7,000-10,000 orders per day at the rate of 60 seconds per order, he added.
With this, Ola Consumer will be joining a red-hot quick commerce sector that already has multiple well-capitalised players like Zomato-owned Blinkit, public markets-bound Swiggy Instamart and Tata Digital-backed BigBasket Now.
On August 12, ET reported that Zepto is set to raise $310 million in funding at a $5 billion valuation, just over a month after it raised $665 million from a clutch of investors at a valuation of $3.6 billion. Ecommerce major Flipkart is also set to kick off its quick commerce foray with its Flipkart Minutes product on Big Billion Day.
Ola will also be offering automated warehousing services to ONDC participants and is working with brands like ITC, Marico and Bombay Shaving Company for the same. It also re-introduced ride-sharing on Ola Cabs and started a new loyalty programme called Ola Coins.
Chips on the horizon
Krutrim AI, the sister firm of Ola Electric and Ola Consumer, on Thursday said it would launch an in-house designed AI chip called Bodhi 1 by 2026, and a superior AI chip called Bodhi 2 by 2028.
The firm will also launch a non-AI computing chip called Sarv 1 by 2026, as well as an edge AI chip called Ojas. Ojas will be used for computation on devices like phones, the Internet of Things (IoT), automotive, and other mobile devices.
Ola is partnering with microprocessor firm Arm to design its chips and with hardware provider Lenovo for its data centres, Aggarwal said. “We are in discussions with a number of tier 1 foundries in Taiwan and South Korea to manufacture our chips,” he added.
