‘Didn’t anticipate the crazy demand’: Bhavish Aggarwal on Ola e-scooter bookings

Ola Electric opened bookings for its e-scooter on Thursday. What happened next, as Bhavish Aggarwal says, was not anticipated. The Ola chief said that they had not prepared for the “crazy demand” as a result of which they had not planned “enough scalability of the website”. Many interested buyers were not able to book the scooter.

“For those who faced issues in the beginning, apologies! We didn’t anticipate the crazy demand and didn’t plan enough scalability of the website. All fixed now,” clarified Aggarwal in a tweet.

Bhavish Aggarwal’s clarification comes after many people complained of an OTP glitch when they tried to book the e-scooter. As users tried to put in their OTP to complete the booking process, the site flashed a message saying that the OTP session had expired. Many were unable to complete the process as the OTP did not go through.

OLA ELECTRIC SCOOTER

The Ola chief said on Thursday that bookings for the e-scooter were open. “India’s EV revolution begins today! Bookings now open for the Ola Scooter!  India has the potential to become the world leader in EVs and we’re proud to lead this charge! #JoinTheRevolution at Ola Electric @olaelectric,” he said.

Interested customers can reserve an e-scooter by paying Rs 499 through the Ola Electric site. “Reserving an Ola Scooter by paying Rs 499 means that you will be first in line to purchase it when we announce deliveries. You can cancel and get a refund anytime,” said the company.

To reserve an Ola Scooter, the buyer needs to go to the registering link, available on the website. They will have to log in through their phone number, validate the OTP, pay Rs 499 through netbanking, credit/debit cards, UPI, e-wallets or through OlaMoney.

One buyer can reserve multiple scooters if they want. No documentation is required to reserve an Ola scooter.

The pricing of the Ola scooter is yet to be announced.

Also read: Ola scooter bookings now open; buyers must deposit Rs 499 for the EV