NEW DELHI: After an aggressive foray into the fast growing electric vehicle (EV) market, home-grown mobility firm Ola is eyeing a dominant position in the country’s fragmented used car market.
The Bengaluru-based firm said on Thursday that it is planning to hire 10,000 people as it aims to achieve $2 billion gross merchandise value for its platform Ola Cars over the next 12 months. It claims to have sold 5,000 pre-owned cars in its first full month of operation, the highest growth achieved in this category for a new entrant.
This development comes at a time when Ola’s chief financial officer Swayam Saurabh and chief operating officer Gaurav Porwal are leaving the company. It also comes at a time when the company’s electric mobility arm- Ola Electric- is facing heat on social media platform Twitter on allegations of late delivery of its August launched e-scooter.
Ola Cars has started pre-owned vehicle sales in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad in the middle of the ongoing festive season and said it will soon expand to Chandigarh, Jaipur, Kolkata and Indore by end of this week.
Over the next two months, it aims to be operational in 30 cities and expand to 100 cities by next year. Arun Sirdeshmukh, CEO, Ola Cars, said, “With Ola Cars, we are redefining the entire car buying, ownership and resale experience. Our ‘better than new’ buying experience is driving tremendous demand with over 5,000 cars already sold in our first full month of operation.”
According to a report by Mordor Intelligence, the pre-owned car market recorded sales of 4.4 million units in FY20 as compared to only 2.8 million units of new passenger vehicles in the same year. Ola said it will also set up service centres across the country.