Ola's Bhavish Aggarwal challenges Kunal Kamra: Help us fix EV problems or stay quiet

On October 6, 2024, Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal and comedian Kunal Kamra had a heated exchange on social media about delays in Ola's electric vehicle services. It all started when Aggarwal posted a picture of the Ola Gigafactory with a heart emoji and tagged the company's business head, Vishal Chaturvedi.

Kamra replied to Aggarwal's post by sharing a picture of many Ola electric scooters sitting unused outside a service center, gathering dust. He tagged government ministers Nitin Gadkari and the Consumer Affairs Department, asking if Indian customers deserve this kind of treatment.

Do indian consumers have a voice?
Do they deserve this?
Two wheelers are many daily wage workers lifeline…@nitin_gadkari is this how Indians will get to using EV’s? @jagograhakjago any word?
Anyone who has an issue with OLA electric leave your story below tagging all… https://t.co/G2zdIs15wh pic.twitter.com/EhJmAzhCmt

— Kunal Kamra (@kunalkamra88) October 6, 2024

Aggarwal responded to Kamra's criticism with sarcasm, inviting him to "help" with the electric vehicle services and saying he'd pay him "more than his failed comedy career."

Since you care so much @kunalkamra88, come and help us out! I’ll even pay more than you earned for this paid tweet or from your failed comedy career.

Or else sit quiet and let us focus on fixing the issues for the real customers. We’re expanding service network fast and backlogs… https://t.co/ZQ4nmqjx5q

— Bhavish Aggarwal (@bhash) October 6, 2024

Aggarwal is now facing criticism for his argument with Kamra, which has sparked a discussion about professionalism and how customer complaints should be handled. People have called the CEO's comments "arrogant," "crass," and "vulgar" following the exchange.

As the argument grew, Aggarwal kept attacking Kamra online, avoiding the growing complaints from customers about Ola Electric scooters. What began as a dispute over delays in scooter services has now turned into a larger discussion about marketing, transparency, and the challenges of building big businesses in India's electric vehicle market.

While Kamra's post and claims about paid promotions caught people's attention, some of the industry professionals have supported Aggarwal, acknowledging the difficulties of expanding an EV company in India. Entrepreneur Vatsal Sanghvi defended Aggarwal, praising the huge effort needed to grow a business like Ola Electric.

Amid the controversy, an article from TechCrunch reported that Ola Electric's customers are unhappy with its service and scooters, which is impacting the company's stock and market share. On Monday, October 7, the company's shares dropped by 9.1% to Rs 89.14, lowering its market value to below $4.75 billion for the first time since its IPO in August 2024. According to Mint, the company gets over 80,000 customer complaints each month.