Ola to lay off 200 engineers, 500 staff across verticals

Ola, the multi-national ridesharing company, plans to cut its engineering staff strength by 10 per cent. As a part of a larger restructuring exercise towards its electric dream, Ola said it has asked around 200 engineers, including some in the software vertical, to leave from its 2,000-strong engineer workforce.

The company had recently denied sacking around 500 employees, adding that it is “centralising operations and is undertaking a restructuring exercise to minimise redundancy and build a strong lateral structure that strengthens relevant roles and functions”.

CNBC first reported that nearly 500 employees are being laid off from the various software verticals of ANI technologies which operates as Ola Cabs.

Also read: Top Ola Electric executive puts in his papers; 32nd resignation in two years

Restructuring exercise

Earlier restructuring exercises impacted employees across product, marketing, sales, supply, tech, business, and operations verticals, affecting nearly 500 employees that “were a result of restructuring in the Cars and Dash businesses”.

“The company currently has around 2,000 engineers and aims to increase its engineering talent pool to 5,000 over the next 18 months,” said the ride-hailing company.

Ola, which launched its electric scooter in December last year, had earlier laid off close to 2,000 employees due to the closure of the pre-owned car business, Ola Cars, and quick commerce business Ola Dash. More than 30 senior officials, including members of Bhavish Agarwal’s leadership team, have quit in the last two years.

However, Ola Electric’s sales are diminishing and it sold 3,421 EV two-wheelers in August, a drop from 3,862 units the company sold in July.

More than six senior executives have quit Ola Electric in recent months and recently, Ola Electric’s head of advanced battery engineering, Ashok Saraswat, quit. Saraswat, who joined SoftBank-backed Ola last year, is reportedly joining a company that is entering the battery business.

Focus on non-software engineering domains

“Ola Electric has been increasing its focus on non-software engineering domains with a clear focus on building engineering and R&D capabilities across — vehicle, cell, battery, manufacturing and automation, autonomous engineering streams, and others,” the company said in a statement on Monday.

“The company is centralizing operations and is undertaking a restructuring exercise to minimize redundancy and build a strong lateral structure that strengthens relevant roles and functions,” the statement said.

Also read: Ola electric car with 500km range to launch in 2024: All you need to know

As EV two-wheeler sales drop amid battery fire fears, Okinawa Autotech, PureEV and Ola Electric recalled 6,656 vehicles after the battery explosion incidents increased in the country.

The government has said it is extra vigilant about the safety standards of EVs and experts are on the job.