India’s Ola Electric posts narrower loss as costs shrink

Indian e-scooter manufacturer Ola Electric reported a narrower quarterly loss on Friday as lower manufacturing costs for its new lineup of models helped partly offset a sales slump.

The SoftBank-backed startup posted a loss of 4.87 billion rupees ($53.7 million) in the October-December quarter, compared with 5.64 billion rupees a year earlier.

The results include a one-time charge of 50.6 million Indian rupees due to India’s new labour code.

Bengaluru-based Ola has stepped up efforts to manage costs, ranging from kicking off in-house production of EV cells, to increasing automation, and cutting jobs.

The increased automation and job cuts are expected to bring quarterly operating expenses to 2.5 billion Indian rupees to 3 billion Indian rupees, from the current 4.16 billion rupees, the company said.

Ola’s sales slid 61% in the three months through December, according to company data. That led to a 55% decline in revenue to 4.7 billion Indian rupees.

Expenses, meanwhile, dropped around 51% to 7.41 billion Indian rupees, with raw material costs falling 74.3%.

The company, which also makes battery energy storage systems using its in-house EV cells, kept its revenue and volume targets unchanged.

Ola had said in November it expects volumes of 100,000 units from September 2025 to March 2026 and sees fiscal 2026 revenue at 30 billion rupees to 32 billion Indian rupees.

Shares of the company closed 0.3% lower on Friday.