According to a recent news report, Ola Electric, the maker of the S1 Pro EV, has temporarily halted production at its Hosur plant. While the company has stated that the shutdown is for annual maintenance, sources have stated that this is not the case.
According to the report, the company made this decision due to an increase in inventory. Currently, the EV manufacturer has over 4,000 scooters on hand at its plant. This is in addition to the thousands of units that are currently stacked up and waiting to be delivered to customers.
Prior to the suspension of production, the company was producing 100 scooters per day, which was less than the plant’s maximum daily capacity of 600 units. Ola Electric, in response to all claims of inventory pileup, stated that the suspension was due to annual maintenance.
However, the company has not disclosed the total number of bookings in order to provide a clear picture in this regard. Last month, the EV startup shipped 5869 units, dropping it to fourth place, trailing only Ampere, which sold 6534 units.
Ola Electric began full-time production at its plant in December after starting production in October. As a result, the manufacturing industry has yet to complete a full year. In June, the company experienced a 53.75 per cent decrease in growth when compared to April and a 36.38 per cent decrease when compared to May.
Customers have recently criticised the EV industry as a whole due to a string of fires. Some of the accidents were so severe that they took the owners’ lives.
Recently, a Tata Nexon EV caught fire. It was one of the few EVs that had never been involved in an accident. When service personnel were pressure washing a unit with a cracked battery, an Aether 450X caught fire.
An expert committee formed by the Union Road Transport and Highways Ministry stated that it discovered flaws in the safety systems of electric 2-wheelers’ batteries.
According to the report, manufacturers took shortcuts to increase production rather than focusing on rider safety. The committee discovered that manufacturers lacked a mechanism for detecting cell overheating and isolating failed units.