According to reliable sources, Ola is looking to transition from a mobility services provider to a global leader in low-cost EV (electric vehicle) market, modeled after Elon Musk’s famed car and clean energy company Tesla, Inc.
Sources close to the matter stated that the firm will produce 10 million e-scoters annually, making it the largest two-wheeler manufacturer worldwide.
The Bengaluru-based company plans to control the entire value chain for electric vehicles, starting with electric scooters in the middle of this year and then progressing to small electric cars soon.
In this context, Bhavish Aggarwal, Chairman and Group CEO at Ola, mentioned that their goal is to leave a big impact in electric vehicles. He further added that they can only have an impact in electrification if they play at a large scale, and that the company cannot be built by selling 2,000 vehicles a year.
It is worth mentioning that Ola's main manufacturing unit, modeled after Tesla's Gigafactory in Nevada (US), will cover 43 acres and be roughly two-thirds the size of the American EV giant’s largest manufacturing plant.
The ride-hailing firm said that the factory will be built in stages, with capacity for the first two million units ready by June of this year and an all-electric scooter is expected to be the first product to rollout into the market.
Ola claims to have built, manufactured, and will produce its own batteries, engines, charging and motor controls, as well as the software that will power the scooters, to lower costs. Though it continues to import lithium-ion cells from South Korea, it will consider local manufacturing with associates as the size of its electric vehicle business expands, cited knowledgeable sources.
Rooftop solar panels will provide 20% of the factory's power needs, and the factory will be carbon negative, said the company. It will also have over 3,000 industrial robots to automate several vital and hazardous activities, creating 10,000 direct jobs for Ola.
Source- https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/startups/ola-wants-to-be-the-tesla-of-low-cost-evs/articleshow/81378106.cms