BENGALURU (Reuters) -India’s top e-scooter maker Ola Electric reported a bigger quarterly loss on Wednesday, hurt by subsidy cuts and a surge in depreciation costs, but said it was inching closer to breaking even in a key profit metric.
The company, which made its trading debut last week, also said it would equip its e-scooters with its own batteries by this time next year, which is key to its profitability target.
Since launching its first model three years ago, Ola Electric has grown to command a 39% share of two-wheeler EV sales in the country in July, per government data.
Ola Electric’s loss increased to 3.47 billion rupees ($41.4 million) in the April-June quarter from 2.67 billion rupees in the year-ago quarter.
The latest quarter included a one-time expense of 230 million rupees to account for the drop in incentives after the government halved its subsidies on purchases of electric vehicles.
Ola Electric’s depreciation costs nearly tripled in the quarter, but the company did not give a reason for that.
However, before accounting for depreciation as well as amortisation, interest and taxes, Ola Electric’s profit margin was negative 1.97% in the auto business, which accounts for 99% of its revenue.
This was a sharp improvement from last year’s negative 8.29% so-called EBITDA margin, which is a key gauge of operational profitability.
Ola Electric, which has three e-scooter models, slashed prices of its cheapest model in April to boost demand after the government reduced subsidies.
Its overall sales volume increased 57% in the quarter, boosting revenue by 32.3% to 16.44 billion rupees.
In the year ended March, Ola Electric’s revenue surged 90% as sales volumes more than doubled.
Expenses increased 27% in the latest quarter. The rise in its costs slowed to 62% last year from a three-fold jump in the previous year.
The company’s stock has surged 46% since making a sparkling stock market debut last Friday. ($1 = 83.9190 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Nandan Mandayam in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D’Souza)
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