Ola forays into new and used car market space, names Arun Sirdeshmukh CEO

Bhavish Aggarwal-led mobility platform Ola on Thursday launched Ola Cars, its new vehicle commerce platform for buying new and pre-owned vehicles through the Ola App. The company said Ola Cars will be a one-stop shop for customers looking at "hassle-free buying, selling and managing their cars". Ola Cars will compete with the likes of homegrown startups like Spinny, Droom, Cars24 and Olx in the used car category.

The company said Ola Cars will offer a bouquet of services to customers. These include purchase, vehicle finance and insurance, registration, maintenance, including vehicle health diagnostics and service, accessories and finally resale of the vehicle back to Ola Cars.

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Ola Founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal said customers are no longer satisfied with the archaic retail store mode and are looking for a new way to buy, service and sell their vehicles. "With Ola Cars, we are bringing a completely new experience for buying, selling and overall ownership for both new and owned vehicles," he said.

Ola Cars will start with pre-owned cars and will soon open it up for new vehicles from Ola Electric and other automotive brands as well, said the company.

It also plans to start with 30 cities initially and will soon scale up to over 100 cities by next year.

Meanwhile, Ola has appointed Arun Sirdeshmukh as Chief Executive Officer of Ola Cars who has over 30 years of experience in consumer internet, FMCG, retail and fashion industries, including with Amazon India, Reliance Trends and IBM Global Services.

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He will oversee the entire sales and distribution, service, marketing, customer support, and go-to-market strategy for the business.

Sirdeshmukh said with Ola Cars, the company is completely reimagining not just buying and selling but also vehicle finance, insurance, as well as maintenance. "We have plans to expand aggressively over the next few months across India and international markets and also launch new verticals in this business including pre-owned 2W and new vehicles," he added.

Ola said it has now moved to sustainable mobility through its ride-hailing platform and advanced electric vehicles manufactured at its two-wheeler factory Futurefactory.

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