Ola Electric Seeks SEBI Settlement Over Alleged Misleading Disclosures

Ola Electric and its founder, Bhavish Aggarwal, have officially approached the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to settle proceedings regarding allegations of disseminating false information. The company aims for an amicable closure to avoid prolonged litigation, seeking to resolve claims that its disclosures potentially inflated stock prices.

The Core of the SEBI Allegations

The regulatory scrutiny follows an investigation into Ola Electric’s disclosures made between its August 2024 listing and May 2025. SEBI has alleged violations of the Prohibition of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices (PFUTP) Regulations and the Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements (LODR) Regulations.

The investigation focuses on three primary areas where the regulator claims there was a significant disconnect between public announcements and operational reality: service network expansion, sales performance metrics, and product rollout timelines.

Discrepancies in Service Network Expansion

A major point of contention involves Ola's claims regarding its physical footprint. In December 2024, the company informed stock exchanges that it would expand to 4,000 locations, including over 3,200 stores co-located with service centres.

However, SEBI’s findings revealed "evident gaps" in these claims. While the company touted massive expansion through social media and exchange filings, data submitted to the regulator showed only 452 co-located outlets were operational as of February 19, 2025. This represents an increase of only 23 centres from the 429 outlets present at the time of its IPO, contradicting the company's narrative of rapid scaling.

Sales Figures: Orders vs. Registrations

SEBI has also flagged potential manipulation of sales data. In February 2025, Ola Electric disclosed it had sold over 25,000 electric two-wheelers and held a market share exceeding 28%.

The regulator's investigation found that the figure of 25,207 actually represented confirmed customer orders, not completed sales. The breakdown revealed a much smaller operational scale:

Furthermore, SEBI noted that the company failed to disclose that 3,333 orders were later cancelled, with 2,560 of those cancellations occurring by April 2025.

Delays in the Roadster Motorcycle Rollout

The third pillar of the probe concerns the "Roadster" motorcycle programme. SEBI alleges that Ola failed to adequately disclose delays and pending prototype approvals, despite public commitments to begin deliveries by March 2025. The regulator specifically highlighted a disclosure in May 2025 stating that Roadster X deliveries had commenced, even though no deliveries actually took place that month—a fact subsequently acknowledged by Aggarwal when he confirmed deliveries only began in June.

Ola Electric maintains that there was no mala fide (bad faith) intent behind these reporting discrepancies and is seeking to settle the matter "without admission or denial" of the facts.

Key Takeaways