Ola’s vision for launching electric vehicle got a jump-start after it acquired Amsterdam-based smart scooter startup Etergo BV last year. Aggarwal said barring the design similarity, everything has been built ground-up by its team in Bengaluru.
Ola, he said, has designed, engineered, and manufactured its own battery pack, motor, vehicle computer and software, and is more than 90% localised. It’s only the cells the company is importing for Korea.
The startup backed by SoftBank Group Corp. and Tiger Global Management said its system would take 36 minutes for 100% charge at a fast charger, while 6-7 hours when done at home.
Sufficient charging infrastructure is crucial to accelerate India’s electric-vehicle adoption that has so far lagged China and Europe. Ola, with more than 1 lakh pre-bookings from over 1,000 cities, said it would set up charging across the key demand markets by October. It, however, didn’t reveal details.
The chargers will be located in city centers, business districts, office towers and other crowded areas.
Ola claimed to be building the world’s biggest scooter factory with a total capacity of 1 crore scooters annually. As part of its phase 1 strategy, the company said 10-lakh capacity was ready and another 10 lakh would be ready in a few months.
While the chip shortage has impacted the company, Aggarwal said the firm has been able to stay largely on track. Ola will start retail of its scooters in India. It’s also eying Latin America, Europe, Asean countries, in the first part of its international expansion plan, and China in the next phase.
