Ola Co-Founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal on Wednesday said electric vehicles (EVs) offer far greater cost savings than is commonly understood, arguing that electric two-wheelers are nearly 90 percent cheaper to operate than their petrol-powered counterparts.
EV Running Costs Far Lower Than ICE Vehicles
In a post on X on January 21, 2026, Aggarwal compared the running costs of internal combustion engine (ICE) two-wheelers with electric models. He stated that a typical petrol two-wheeler with a fuel efficiency of 50 km per litre, at a petrol price of Rs 100 per litre, costs about Rs 2 per km to run.
The Per-Kilometre Cost Breakdown
By contrast, Ola’s electric two-wheelers consume around 30 watt-hours per km, translating to roughly 33 km per unit of electricity. At an assumed electricity cost of Rs 6.5 per unit, the running cost works out to approximately Rs 0.20 per km, he said.
Marketing Gap on EV Savings
“Shocking how little people understand the savings EVs bring,” Aggarwal wrote, adding that the company could have communicated this advantage more effectively in the past and would now focus on highlighting it. According to his calculation, the difference in per-kilometre cost makes electric two-wheelers about 90 percent cheaper to operate than petrol vehicles.
