Ola's Bhavish Aggarwal might hire a veteran Unilever executive as new CEO for cabs business, says report

Ola founder-CEO Bhavish Aggarwal may step down as the CEO of its cabs business and appoint a new executive to handle the operations. Till now, Aggarwal managed both the cabs business and e-scooters' verticals. According to a report in the Economic Times, a former Unilever executive has been roped in for the top post and could join early next week.

One of the sources quoted by the report said Hemant Bakshi, who is currently based in Singapore as the global head and executive vice president of Unilever Marketplace, could join as the new CEO.

Bakshi previously led Unilever Indonesia as president and director. He began his career 30 years back in India with Unilever India.

Since the inception of Ola, Aggarwal has remained the CEO of its cabs business. He entrusted a number of executives to handle the day-to-day affairs of the cabs business when he started setting up Ola Electric, the vehicle manufacturing business.
The report further stated that it wasn't clear whether the new CEO will lead ANI Technologies, the incorporated entity that runs Ola Cabs and its subsidiaries, including Ola Financial Services, or just the core cab-hailing business.

On August 15, Ola Electric announced the launch of the Ola S1X EV scooter amid other new products at their "End Ice Age, Part 1" event. The launch was a push towards electronic vehicles (EVs) in a move to end the "age" of ICE or internal combustion engine scooters.

The Ola S1X, or the "ICE killer" as the company calls it, comes in two variants with a 150 km range. The price begins at around Rs 79,999 based on the model with an inaugural offer by Ola Electric.

Equipped with a lighter battery, improved thermal performance and additional safety, Ola Electric also announced its Generation 2 platform. The company also showcased its four electric four electric motorcycles which will be launched towards the end of 2024.

The company launched -  MoveOS 4 update the beta version will be available from September 15. Aggarwal called this the biggest software release by the company so far.  

Aggarwal also said that the country's first large-scale gigafactory which will be a manufacturing facility for rechargeable batteries for EVs will be up and functioning by next year.

In an interview with ETNow, Aggarwal said: "By early next year, we will actually make the gigafactory operational and start using our own Indian-manufactured cells and that is going to be a very important initiative to reduce cost further."

As per the CEO, the initial capacity of the Gigafactory will be 5 GWh. At full scale, the factory will have 100 GWh capacity, which will also be the world's largest battery manufacturing unit.