Ola Electric employee costs surge in December quarter; net loss exceeds revenue

Loss-making Indian two-wheeler maker Ola Electric

, which had announced a 5% workforce reduction in January, reported a further rise in employee costs for the December quarter. Employee expenses surged 67% from the September quarter to ₹92 crore. The overhead expenses accounted for nearly 20% of the company’s Q3 revenue, compared with employee costs comprising 10.3% of revenue for the full fiscal year 2025.

In January, the Bhavish Aggarwal-led company said it would reduce its workforce by 5% to improve profitability through greater automation. As of March 2025, the company’s total headcount stood at 12,396 employees, including around 4,000 permanent staff. The attrition rate for the year stood at 54%.

Management attributed the rise in overhead costs to employee exits. “Employee cost going up is largely linked to exits,” said Bhavish Aggarwal, Chairman and Managing Director, following the Q3 earnings announcement. He added that several cost actions were undertaken during the quarter, with the associated expenses front-loaded. The benefits of these measures, particularly in terms of operating expenditure (OpEx) reduction, are expected to become visible in the coming quarters.

The company is also targeting an increase in cell manufacturing capacity at its gigafactory to 6 gigawatt-hours (GWh) from 2.5 GWh by March 2026.

However, the SoftBank-backed firm, which is yet to turn profitable, reported another quarterly loss. It posted a net loss of ₹487 crore for the December quarter on revenue of ₹470 crore, compared with the Bloomberg consensus estimate of a ₹401 crore loss. Revenue also missed estimates, falling short of the projected ₹514 crore.

However, this is not the first time the company has reported a loss exceeding its revenue. In the March quarter of 2025, it posted a net loss of ₹870 crore on revenue of ₹611 crore.

During the quarter, Ola Electric delivered approximately 32,600–32,700 units and produced 72,500 cells, achieving a gross margin of 34.3%. This marks an improvement of 3.4 percentage points (ppt) sequentially and 16 percentage points year-on-year.

Also read: Ola Electric Mobility Limited Q3 loss narrows as structural reset lifts margins

The stock, which debuted at an offer price of ₹76 per share in August 2024, is currently trading at ₹30.89. Shares had surged to a high of ₹146.38 in the listing month but have since declined by nearly 80%.