Bhavish Aggarwal recalls Ratan Tata’s key role in founding Ola Electric

Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal paid tribute to Ratan Tata as he remembered his key role in the founding of his second venture, Ola Electric.
The chairman emeritus of Tata Sons, who played a pivotal role in shaping India’s business landscape, died late Wednesday night in Mumbai at the age of 86.
In a post on X, Aggarwal shared that it was Ratan Tata who ignited his passion for Electric Vehicles.
“Ratan Tata, my personal hero. The one story I’d like to share today is his key role in the founding of my second company, Ola Electric. One day in 2017, I got a call from him asking me to come to Mumbai. He simply said, ‘Bhavish, I want to take you somewhere and show you something exciting,” Aggarwal said.
The excitement led to an unforgettable journey: “We flew in his plane to Coimbatore to see his personal project making electric vehicles out of the Tata Nano! He was so passionate and excited about EVs. He even drove me in one on a test track and then pointed out such detailed improvements to the engineers”.
That was the moment when Ola Electric truly began, inspired by Tata’s enthusiasm for electric vehicles.
“That was the day Ola Electric really got started – as he ignited the passion for EVs and cars in me,” Aggarwal said.
He went on to describe how Ratan Tata played an ongoing role in Ola Electric’s development and provided feedback on various product concepts and ideas, some of which have not yet been launched.
“After that, on almost every product that we conceptualised and designed (some of which are not yet released) I would go and show him the concepts, and he would patiently sit with me and ideate and give feedback,” he said.
Their last meeting, Aggarwal said, was just a year ago when he shared the news of Ola Electric’s IPO with Tata.
“He was frail, but his enthusiasm for cars was as high as ever, and his encouragement for me was as strong as ever,” Aggarwal said as he reflected on the deep personal connection he shared with his hero.
Aggarwal’s admiration for Tata began during his days as a student at IIT Bombay, where Tata was the guest speaker at his graduation ceremony in 2008. It was then Tata’s words about serving one’s country that left a lasting impact.
“In 2015, I got the chance to meet Mr Tata, and he decided to invest in Ola. But my interactions with him didn’t end there. They had just begun! Mr Tata was like no other business leader I have ever met,” he said.
Over the years, Ratan Tata took a personal interest in Aggarwal’s journey. Aggarwal fondly recalled a time when Tata spent an entire day with his team in Bengaluru.
“I invited him to address my company. I thought a person of his stature would politely decline but he actually took a full day out, flew to Bengaluru, and spent the entire day with my team and company,” he added.
Take a look at his post:
Aggarwal concluded his post with a touching tribute: “I will deeply miss him. India will deeply miss him. There will be no one like him again.”
And we couldn’t agree more!