For Bhavish Aggarwal and Ola Electric, the narrative is one of perpetual motion; a company that claims it is shifting from a hypergrowth EV disruptor to a maturing company focused on the long game.

The leadership speaks of consolidation, of profits finally being extracted from its much-vaunted full-stack approach, and of a future defined by capital efficiency and vertical integration.

This bullishness found a receptive audience, at least for a day, as the company’s stock surged nearly 18% following its Q1 FY26 results, buoyed by guidance that its auto business had, for the first time, turned EBITDA positive in the month of June.

But when one peels back the layers of this corporate messaging, and a far more challenging picture emerges, one where the uphill climb for the Indian EV maker seems to get steeper with every passing quarter. The past several months have been a crucible for Ola Electric, testing its foundations and questioning the very disruption narrative it champions.

While the company celebrates a single month of positive EBITDA in its auto segment, the larger financial portrait is starkly negative.

The consolidated net loss in the first quarter of FY26 widened by 23% year-on-year (YoY) to INR 428 Cr. This was accompanied by a brutal 50% collapse in revenue from operations, down to INR 828 Cr from INR 1,644 Cr in the same quarter last year.

This wasn’t a one-off bad quarter; it was the continuation of a worrying trend. The preceding quarter, Q4 FY25, was what Aggarwal himself described as “complex”. To put it mildly, it was a bad hit to the reputation of the company which claims to be a pioneer in the EV space.

The company’s consolidated net loss more than doubled to a staggering INR 870 Cr, a 109% surge from the INR 416 Cr loss a year prior. Revenue from operations didn’t just slip; it plummeted by a whopping 62% YoY to INR 611 Cr from INR 1,598 Cr. The stock market, that unforgiving barometer of sentiment, reacted predictably. Following the Q4 results, Ola Electric’s shares tanked by 10%,

The pain for investors has only gotten worse since listing and prolonged. The stock has been on a relentless downward trajectory, hitting a fresh all-time low of INR 43.15 in June, a gut-wrenching 68% decline from its 52-week high.

This wasn’t........

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