Decoding Ola’s charge back into the bike taxi space

Pranav Balakrishnan

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Pranav Balakrishnan

12 reads

Ola recently announced its re-entry into Karnataka’s bike taxi battle with an all-electric fleet, courtesy of Ola Electric. While the move will be a shot in the arm both for Ola and Ola Electric, industry watchers aren't convinced the latter’s scooters are the right form factor for bike taxis.

September 18, 2023

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Key Takeaways

Ola’s re-entry into Karnataka’s bike taxi wars, unlike its operations elsewhere, will be fully electric. This makes it the first all-electric bike taxi fleet in the country
Ola will be using Ola Electric’s S1 scooters and is tying up with various fleet operators to scale its EV bike taxi operation
The company sees two opportunities—capitalise on the impending ban on petrol bike taxis and increase the sales of Ola Electric’s scooters
But industry watchers are not sure if Ola Electric’s scooters are the right form factor for a bike taxi service

On Saturday, September 16, Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal announced the company had re-launched its bike taxi services in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Having shuttered the service in Karnataka nearly four years ago in the face of regulatory headwinds, Ola believes that it could now become the undisputed bike taxi leader in the state… thanks to regulatory tailwinds.

Ola’s re-entry into Karnataka’s bike taxi wars, unlike its operations elsewhere, will be fully electric. This makes it the first all-electric bike taxi fleet in the country. The company, according to Aggarwal, will use the S1 Air electric scooters made by Ola Electric—Aggarwal’s EV venture—to ferry passengers across the city.

This approach keeps Ola on the right side of the Karnataka government, which has repeatedly voiced its intention to ban bike taxis that run on petrol. The Karnataka Electric Bike Taxi Scheme, 2021, mandates that only electric bike taxis are allowed to operate in the state. Thus far, though, the policy has been something of a paper tiger as the Karnataka High Court, in August 2021, instructed the Karnataka government not to go after platforms such as Uber and Rapido, which operate petrol bike taxis.