Ola to Cut 10 Percent Engineering Jobs Across Ride-Hailing, Electric Vehicle Manufacturing Businesses: Details

Ola plans to increase its engineering workforce to 5,000, up from 2,000, over the next 18 months.

By Reuters | Updated: 19 September 2022 15:40 IST

Ola to Cut 10 Percent Engineering Jobs Across Ride-Hailing, Electric Vehicle Manufacturing Businesses: Details

Ola plans to start producing electric cars in 2024

Highlights

Ola started manufacturing e-scooters last year
It postponed plans to go public in the first half of 2022
Ola recalled over 1,400 of the scooters after one of them caught fire

India's Ola will cut about 200 engineering jobs to reduce redundancy across its two main businesses of ride-hailing and electric vehicle manufacturing, the SoftBank Group-backed company said on Monday. The company said it is focussed on being a "vertically integrated mobility company" and is centralising operations to build a structure to strengthen relevant roles and functions. "Ola is building on common capabilities and synergies across functions as it strengthens its play across two-wheelers, four-wheelers, cell research and manufacturing," the company said in a statement.

To that end, said Ola, it plans to boost its engineering workforce to 5,000 over the next 18 months from around 2,000 currently, as part of an "influx of hiring" for roles in vehicle engineering, sourcing, product management and data science.

Ola, which pipped Uber to take a majority share of India's ride-hailing market, started manufacturing e-scooters last year and plans to start producing electric cars in 2024.

[Sponsored] Samsung Galaxy S24: The Ultimate Camera Phone With Smarter On-Device AI

However, its scooter business came under scrutiny earlier this year when Ola recalled more than 1,400 of the vehicles after one of them caught fire.

The company also postponed plans to go public in the first half of this year, possibly due to volatility in the market and lacklustre listings of other domestic start-ups.

Last month, it was reported that Ola Electric planned to launch its first four-wheeler electric vehicle in the Indian market in 2024. The first electric car from the company is claimed to offer a range of over 500km on a single charge and go from 0-100kmph within 4 seconds. As previously mentioned, the firm made its entry into the EV space last year with the launch of Ola S1 and S1 Pro electric scooters.

Fire at Electric Bike Showroom in Hyderabad Claims 8 Lives: Report

© Thomson Reuters 2022

Buying an affordable 5G smartphone today usually means you will end up paying a "5G tax". What does that mean for those looking to get access to 5G networks as soon as they launch? Find out on this week's episode. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.