Ola invests $100 million on crucial indigenisation of cell production

Bangalore, Bengaluru: Eyeing indigenisation of its cells, Ola Electric has invested $100 million in building Phase-I of its ‘Gigafactory’, where apart from producing lithium-ion batteries, it hopes to produce solid-state batteries in the coming times. The company aims to use its indigenous batteries in its vehicles by early next year.

Speaking to media persons on Saturday, Bhavish Aggarwal, Chairman and Managing Director, Ola, said, “By early next year, our scooters will have our own cells… Our aim in manufacturing cells is to reduce our dependence on imports and also bring down the cost of EVs.”

Currently, Ola’s electric vehicles run on lithium-ion batteries imported from Korea, Japan and China. The company has already started making 4860 batteries, which deliver five times more energy than the 2170 cells currently used, but the products are only being deployed for testing. Aggarwal announced that the company is in the early stages of experimenting with more stable solid-state batteries, which are also yet to be launched globally.

Indigenisation of cell production can effectively bring down the cost of cells to below the global rate of $100 per kilowatt-hour (kWh). As is known, cells make up a major part of the cost of an electric vehicle.

Ola begins construction of this factory in June 2023 in Tamil Nadu’s Krishnagiri district, where its second plant – Ola Futurefactory – produces electric scooters. Phase-I of the project has generated 1.49 gigawatt-hours of electricity

(GWh) has installed capacity of , which will be increased to 5 GWh in Phase-II. After this, the target is to take it to 20GWh.

Ola aims for faster adoption and manufacturing of electric vehicles (FAME) Scheme has availed subsidy under the scheme. It is also availing production-linked incentive (PLI). FAME-II is ending in March this year and no extension of the scheme has been started yet, Agarwal said, “We FAME This is linked with the government’s directive to reduce subsidies and replace it with PLI.” Incidentally, like the Futurefactory, the Gigafactory too has an entirely women workforce.