Maharashtra Govt Shuts Down 75 Ola Showrooms, 192 Electric Scooters Seized: Here's Why

Ola Electric has been in the news for quite some time. Last month, they made headlines after reports emerged of them faking the February sales numbers. This month, Ola is in the news again after the Maharashtra government decided to shut down not one or two, but 75 Ola showrooms in the state. These showrooms are being shut down due to malpractices regarding trade certificates.

The government has asked the authorities to inspect all Ola showrooms in the state, and if any of the showrooms or service centers are found operating under an RTO without trade certificates, authorities must take action to shut them down.

While speaking to NDTV Profit, Maharashtra's Joint Transport Commissioner said, “Action should be taken to close that centre, and the original trade certificate should be cancelled.” This is not a new issue. In fact, Ola’s issues in Maharashtra began in March when local RTOs in Mumbai and Pune conducted raids in various Ola stores for trade certificates. Ola calls these showrooms "experience centers," and most of them were operating without a valid trade certificate or were sharing one among them.

The authorities took note of this issue and sent a notice to Ola asking for an explanation. The notice was sent on March 31, and the manufacturer responded by saying that they are currently in the process of applying for trade certificates for all their locations in the state.

During the inspection or raid, authorities inspected 146 Ola Electric stores and found that 121 of them were operating without a trade certificate. Since then, 75 stores have been closed down. Apart from shutting down the showrooms, authorities have also seized 192 scooters.

As per the law, each outlet or showroom that is displaying or selling a vehicle must have its own trade certificate. This allows the dealerships to legally register the vehicle and also meet all regulatory requirements. This was one of the reasons why many customers were facing delays in getting their electric scooters registered.

Ola was one of those brands that entered the Indian market with the aim of disrupting the industry and changing the electric vehicle game for customers. However, things were never easy—or at least not as easy as Ola thought they would be.

Initially, when Ola launched their scooters, they announced that they would be selling the scooters directly to the buyer and that there wouldn’t be any dealerships. They even mentioned that servicing the scooters would also be done by an expert team at the customer's doorstep.

However, this model failed miserably, as several Ola scooter owners started reporting issues. When the manufacturer realized that they needed physical dealerships, they came up with the idea of experience centers. This was initially offered as an option for customers to touch and feel the scooter before actually buying it. These experience centers later turned into showrooms, and they began selling scooters to customers.

For anyone who has bought an Ola scooter in Maharashtra, the news of showrooms closing down is unsettling, as many of them must be worried whether the dealership near their home will open tomorrow or not.