Bangalore: On around 500 acres in the Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu, Ola Electric Mobility Pvt Ltd is building what it calls a ‘Factory of the Future’, which when fully ready will produce 10 million electric scooters a year, making it the largest manufacturer of two-wheelers in the world.
Since the land – 260 acres for the plant and 240 acres for two supplier parks – is still in excavation mode, the Bengaluru-based company has a somewhat bold plan to start production in the first phase, as early as June. The first phase itself will produce 2 million units, which will be retailed in India and exported.
To put it in context, the market leader Hero MotoCorp produces around 6.5 million two-wheelers per year and approximately 22-25 million traditional two-wheelers with internal combustion engines are sold in India every year.
The Unicorn Ola Electric, backed by SoftBank, which was established in 2017, is the electric vehicle (EV) arm of the Ola transportation platform (ANI Technologies Pvt Ltd). Your project, which will see an investment of ₹2,400 crore, has taken off at a time when Tesla Inc., led by Elon Musk, is poised to enter India and the government is trying to boost the manufacture of electric vehicles, batteries and other components.
As Ola moves from transportation fleet management to electric vehicle manufacturing and retail, it is clear to the group’s president and CEO, Bhavish Aggarwal that he is building an engineering and technology company, which will be a complete manufacturer of electric two-wheelers. While Ola Electric will start with scooters, it will also build separate plants for motorcycles and four-wheelers.
“Most of the companies that make electric vehicles in India are not to scale. We believe that we are building products that consumers will aspire to and will be based on principles of sustainability, automation and efficiency. The concept is for a mega-factory that will be the largest two-wheeler factory in the world, not just on electricity, “Aggarwal said in an hour-long presentation at Ola’s Krishnagiri site on Friday.
The integrated manufacturing plant will have 10 assembly lines, use 3,000 robots and around 10,000 workers. Each e-scooter will have 2 removable banana-shaped batteries and the company is building a charging network. It will initially import lithium-ion battery cells for the battery packs, but is actively exploring the creation of a cell manufacturing unit with a technology partner.
In May 2020, Ola Electric had acquired the Amsterdam-based electric scooter startup Etergo BV. Last year, Ola hired former General Motors veteran José Pinheiro as head of global manufacturing and operations, and Julien Geffard as director of marketing strategy to lead the European operations of its electricity business. The appointments came after a series of high-level departures at Ola Electric.
Agarwal said that while Tesla is obviously leading innovation in the electric vehicle space, companies like Tesla and Nio in China are focused on the premium or luxury market.
“Urban mobility vehicles like two-, three- and four-wheelers, hatchbacks, small and medium sedans, that’s the meat of the market. It is a unique opportunity for us and we are starting with the quintessential Indian urban mobility product: scooters within the two-wheeler segment, but we have programs in place for motorcycles, four-wheelers, “he said.
While Ola did not disclose the price of the scooters, he said they will be competitively priced and affordable. Previous reports had suggested they would be priced lower ₹one lakh.
Ola Electric will also use a ‘wire bonding’ technique so that different cells (in the battery) are linked together using wires, something Tesla uses as well.
The success of its electric business, starting with the scooter factory, is crucial for Ola, whose core private transportation business was significantly affected due to the pandemic as was rival Uber. In May, Ola had laid off 1,400 people when demand for shared mobility services petered out after the shutdown.
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