In Tamil Nadu’s Krishnagiri district on around 500 acres, Ola Electric Mobility Pvt Ltd is all ready to build what it calls a ‘Future Factory’. Once ready it will hold the ability to produce 10 million e-scooters annually, making it the largest two-wheeler maker globally.
The Bengaluru-headquartered firm has plans to start production in the first phase, by early June. The first phase is estimated to produce 2 million units, which will be retailed in India and exported.
In 2017, Ola Electric was backed by SoftBank unicorn. The project will seek an investment of ₹2400 crore. This news comes at a time when Elon Musk-led Tesla Inc. is set to make its India entry and the government is trying to boost the manufacturing of EVs, batteries and other components.
CEO Bhavish Aggarwal during an hour-long presentation at Ola’s Krishnagiri site said, “Most companies buildings EVs in India are not at scale. We believe we are building products which consumers will aspire for and will be built on principles of sustainability, automation and efficiency. The concept is of a mega factory which will be the world’s largest two-wheeler factory, not just in electric,”
The integrated manufacturing plant is said to have over 10 assembly lines, with 3000 robots and around 10,000 workers. While the company is building a charging network, this two-wheeler will have 2 banana-shaped batteries. Initially, they will be importing lithium-ion battery cells for the battery packs. However, they’ve been actively exploring setting up a cell manufacturing unit with a technology partner.
