Well yes, as you are reading it. The product manager of the Hero MotoCorp Tech Center in Germany, parent company of Zero Motorcycleshas accused on social media Ola Electric of having plagiarized the work of Zero in a photo shoot. Images, by the way, clearly digitally manipulated.
Ola Electrica leading and well-known manufacturer in the electric vehicle industry, recently presented its new line of electric motorcycles and, of course, we told you about it at the time. However, the launch has quickly been enveloped in a clear controversy, with accusations that the promotional images of the new motorcycles Wave were copied from those of ZeroThis is what our colleagues at Rushlane told us.
Plagiarism by Ola Electric to Zero Motorcycles?
The controversy escalated when Abrar Bin Ayubproduct manager of the Hero MotoCorp Tech Center In Germany, he made his concerns known to the world. In a strong message, Ayub accused Ola Electric of blatantly plagiarizing his work. He wrote: «How unfortunate! The people at Ola Electric have completely copied the work of Zero Motorcycles Inc. Beyond the legal, how can one justify this? Does the culture allow or encourage this? I really hope Bhavish Aggarwal takes responsibility for this.«.
The comment of Ayub It spread like wildfire on the networks, generating a debate on ethics in the electric vehicle industry and raising questions about the practices of Wave.
Besides, Ola Electric is also facing further criticism for a claim made during its launch event. The company billed itself as the world’s fourth-largest electric vehicle company, but added a clarification on the slide: “Excluding China«. This statement has sparked outrage on social media, with users accusing Ola Electric deliberately omitting China, the largest electric vehicle market, to improve its ranking position.
Another post on social media from Ishan Agarwalwhich reached more than 1.1 million views, sarcastically commented: «Not a single day goes by without Indian companies making you cringe. They excluded a country bigger than India from the chart just so OLA could become the fourth largest EV company« Another user pointed out the irony, noting: «After a few slides, they announced a partnership with Lenovo, a Chinese company. It seems like they did this on purpose.«.
Criticism towards Ola Electric intensify as accusations about image plagiarism and the controversial sales claim continue to circulate widely on the Internet.
Of course, the company’s next actions to address these issues and allegations will be closely watched by both the industry, consumers and, of course, us, the media.
