Ola launches Ola Cars for vehicle commerce, appoints Arun Sirdeshmukh as CEO

Ola, the ride-hailing platform, on Thursday, announced its new vehicle commerce platform, Ola Cars, and appointed Arun Sirdeshmukh as its chief executive officer.

Ola Cars will enable consumers to purchase both new and pre-owned vehicles through the Ola App. It will be a one stop shop for customers, offering them a bouquet of services, beginning with purchase, vehicle finance and insurance, registration, maintenance including vehicle health diagnostics and service, accessories and finally resale of the vehicle back to Ola Cars.

Bhavish Aggarwal, founder and CEO, Ola, said “Customers are looking for a new way to buy, service and sell their vehicles. They are no longer satisfied with the archaic retail store mode. They want more transparency and a digital experience. With Ola Cars, we are bringing a completely new experience for buying, selling and overall ownership for both new and owned vehicles. I look forward to working with Sirdeshmukh and building this core pillar of our New Mobility vision.”

Ola Cars will begin with pre-owned and, over time, will open it up for new vehicles from Ola Electric and other automotive brands as well. Starting with 30 cities, Ola Cars will soon scale up to over 100 cities by next year.

Sirdeshmukh brings more than 30 years experience in consumer internet, FMCG, retail and fashion industries, including with Amazon India, Reliance Trends and IBM Global Services. He will oversee the entire sales and distribution, service, marketing, customer support, and go-to-market strategy for the business.

Announcing the plans for Ola Cars, Sirdeshmukh said, “Ola has always been committed to delivering technology driven innovations to enhance consumer’s mobility experience. With Ola Cars, we are completely reimagining not just buying and selling but also vehicle finance, insurance, as well as maintenance – an end-to-end digital-first experience for our customer. We have plans to expand aggressively over the next few months across India and international markets and also launch new verticals in this business including pre-owned 2W and new vehicles."

Ola Cars is part of Ola’s larger vision of New Mobility that encompasses three key pillars – first, New Mobility Services expanding from 150 to 500 cities and increasing the reach from 100mn people to 500mn people; second, New Energy Vehicles with EVs across existing and new vehicle form factors to bring cleaner, efficient and more affordable transportation to people, and third, New Auto Retail that will dramatically improve the entire lifecycle of vehicle ownership for a customer.