Ride-hailing major Ola clarified on Monday that around 200 engineers, including some in the software vertical, have been asked to leave from its 2,000-strong engineer workforce – 10 per cent of the headcount – as part of a major restructuring exercise in the direction of its electric dream. as part.
The company denied sacking 500 employees, saying it was “centralizing operations and undertaking a restructuring exercise to reduce redundancies and build a strong lateral structure that consolidates relevant roles and functions.” Used to be”.
CNBC was the first to report that around 500 employees are being laid off from various software verticals of ANI Technologies that operate as Ola Cabs.
“The company currently has approximately 2,000 engineers and aims to increase its engineering talent pool to 5,000 over the next 18 months,” the ride-hailing company said.
The company’s core ride-hailing business, run by Bhavish Agarwal, has about 1,100 employees.
The first restructuring exercise affected employees across the product, marketing, sales, supply, technology, business and operations verticals at the company, affecting approximately 500 employees who were “the result of a restructuring in the Car and Dash businesses”.
The ride-hailing major recently spun off its old vehicle business Ola Cars as well as its quick-commerce business, Ola Dash, as the company focused on its electric two-wheeler and car vertical.
Ola said it plans to hire 5,000 engineers as it doubles down on new engineering verticals and strengthens capabilities across vehicle, cell, battery, manufacturing and autonomous streams.
However, Ola Electric’s sales have been declining and in August it sold 3,421 EV two-wheelers, down from 3,862 units sold by the company in July.
Over half a dozen senior executives have quit Ola Electric in recent months, while over 30 senior executives have left Ola in the past two years.
Recently, Ashok Saraswat, Head of Advanced Battery Engineering, Ola Electric, left. Saraswat, who joined SoftBank-backed Ola last year, is reportedly joining a company that is entering the battery business.
Okinawa Autotech, PureEV and Ola Electric recalled 6,656 vehicles following a rise in battery explosion incidents in the country, amid declining EV two-wheeler sales amid fears of battery fire.
The government has said that it is extra cautious about the safety standards of electric vehicles and experts are on the job.
Post Ola confirms that it is firing 200 engineers for ‘centralised’ operations, earlier appeared on BGR India.
