Ride-hailing company Ola’s electric vehicle (EV) arm, Ola Electric, has announced that it will refund INR 130 crore (approximately $17.4 million) to customers who were sold EV chargers separately. In a tweet, Ola Electric CEO Bhavish Aggarwal said that the chargers would now be provided for free to all Ola Electric scooter buyers. The move comes after reports surfaced that Ola Electric was selling EV chargers separately, which caused dissatisfaction among some customers. The company had earlier said that the chargers were being sold separately due to a lack of supply.
Ola Electric, the electric vehicle (EV) arm of ride-hailing giant Ola, has announced that it will refund INR 130 crore ($17.3 million) to customers who purchased its electric scooter but were sold its S1 and S1 Pro EV chargers separately. This comes after the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) found that Ola Electric had “misled” customers by advertising the price of the scooter but not including the cost of the charger in its advertisements. Ola Electric launched its S1 and S1 Pro electric scooters in August 2021, and the company offered the EV chargers separately. The company advertised the scooters’ prices without mentioning the cost of the chargers, which were essential to charging the vehicles. The ASCI found that the advertisements were misleading and asked Ola Electric to either withdraw or modify the ads. Following the ASCI’s order, Ola Electric announced that it would refund the full cost of the EV chargers to customers who bought the scooters and had to pay for the chargers separately. The refunds will be processed in the next few days, and the company has apologized for any inconvenience caused to its customers.