Ola had signed an MoU with the Tamil Nadu government worth Rs 2,400 crore for the upcoming EV manufacturing plant in December 2020
Ola Group Chairman & CEO, Bhavish Aggarwal, recently revealed the brand’s first electric scooter in its final production form as he took it for a spin on Bangalore streets. The eco-friendly scooter is likely to be officially launched in a couple of weeks, maybe by the end of this month.
As mentioned previously, the upcoming e-scooter from Ola will be based on Etergo Appscooter and will borrow most of its design elements from the latter. The ride-hailing platform acquired Netherlands-based Etergo BV in May last year and created its own electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing arm called Ola Electric.
The e-scooter has been spotted testing on multiple occasions in the past few months and Ola claims that it will offer class-leading speed, performance and range. However, Ola has not released any specific details about the e-scooter’s technical specifications yet.
It is also expected to borrow most of its features from its Dutch twin including alloy wheels, spacious under-seat storage, removable Lithium-ion battery, digital instrument console, cloud connectivity and more. Apart from offering best in class features, expect the Ola scooter to also offer best in class range.
Largest EV Manufacturing Facility
Ola is constructing a state-of-art manufacturing facility in Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu which is slated to be the largest two-wheeler factory when completed. In its full operational capability, this plant will have a production capacity of 2 million electric two-wheelers per annum and would generate around 10,000 jobs.
The facility will comply with Industry 4.0 norms and in full capacity, will be capable of producing a scooter every two seconds. As per a recent update, Phase 1 of the manufacturing plant is nearing completion and production is expected to kick start soon.
What remains uncertain is whether the first batch of the upcoming e-scooter will be imported or locally assembled models. According to earlier reports, the first batch of electric two-wheelers will be directly imported from Etergo’s Amsterdam-based facility. More details are expected to surface at the time of its official launch.
Hypercharging Network & Price
The shared mobility startup is also looking to build a wide network of Hypercharging stations and battery swapping facilities to address the range issue of all upcoming electric two-wheelers. After introduction of the revised FAME II policies recently, Ola is expected to keep the price of its e-scooter very competitive. Upon its launch, Ola e-scooter will rival the likes of Ather 450X, Bajaj Chetak and TVS iQube among others.
