Ola Electric Onboards New Members Across Key Positions To Unify Operations

SoftBank-backed Ola Electric, the electric vehicle manufacturing company and a subsidiary of cab aggregator, Ola, has undergone restructuring across different, while also onboarding new members in some key positions. This is the second restructuring exercise by Ola this year, as the company focuses on expanding its operations across the electric vehicle segment. 

The company has also elevated the position of YS Kim, who is a veteran leader in the industry by expanding his portfolio to head sales, Direct-to-Consumer (D2C), and charging network segments in the company. The restructuring comes at a time when the company has last month, unveiled its plans of manufacturing electric four-wheelers in 2024, as well as mass production of lithium-ion battery cells by 2023. 

Ola’s Hiring Spree

According to a report by Moneycontrol, Vinay Bhopatkar, Arvind Appi Raj, and Vijayanand Harish have recently resigned from key positions in the company. Bhopatkar was previously heading the sales section at Ola Electric. The company has onboarded B Sivakumar to replace Appi Raj as the director of the environment, health, and safety (EHS) team, whereas B Ganapathiraman will be replacing Harish as the new Director of Manufacturing Operations.

Apart from this, Ola Electric has onboarded Prashantha Subrahmanya Galagali as the head of Supplier Quality Assurance and will be responsible for the quality assurance across electric two-wheeler and four-wheeler segments. Galagali was previously associated with Mahindra Electric Mobility. Meanwhile, the company has also onboarded Ramkripa Ananthan as the head of design team. Ananthan who previously associated with Mahindra and Mahindra as the Chief of Design. 

The company has also onboarded U Venkata Phani Kumar as the Group Chief Projects Officer anf Rafal Biszcz as the head of Manufacturing Engineering charter, respectively. Kumar was previously associated with HCC, and Biszcz has over 16 years of experience in automotive and battery cell technology. 

The Mass Resignation In Ola

Over the past one year, Ola Electric has witnessed people quitting some key positions. Last year, Pranay Jivrajika, the company’s founding partner, resigned the same month. In January, Pankaj Sharma, who preceded Bhopatkar as the Head of Sales, resigned.

In April, while Dinesh Radhakrishnan resigned as the Chief Technology Officer, Zoeb Karampurwalaa exited the company as the Director-Chief Engineering. July witnessed the exit of Yashwant Kumar and Ranjit Kondeshan, as the Head of Ola EV Charging Network and Director of Human Resources, respectively. Last month, Ashok Saraswat, who headed the company’s battery unit, resigned from the company. In the first week of September. Nagi Reddy Satigari, who headed the company’s production resigned. In July, the company had its first restructuring exercise across key positions but laid off as many as 1,000 employees. In the second restructuring exercise, the company has not laid off any employees so far. 

Ola Electric’s Ambitious Plan For EV Segment

On August 15, Ola’s CEO, Bhavish Aggarwal announced that the company will be entering the electric four-wheeler segment by 2024. Giving a sneak peek into the car, he claimed that it would be the ‘fastest’ and ‘sportiest’ to be built in India. He said that the car will be designed in such a manner that it would zoom to 100 km per hour within four seconds and has a 500km range after every charge.  He also unveiled the design features of the car. 

Ola’s electric four-wheeler would be in direct competition with the EVs manufactured by legacy automobile manufacturers such as Tata Motors, Hyundai, Mahindra and Mahindra, and MG Motors. 

In July, the company announced mass production of lithium-ion cells by 2023, through the government’s production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme. The company has also announced an investment of $500 million or Rs 4,000 crore for setting up a cell research and development facility in Bengaluru.