THE BIG E-SCOOTER

OLA ELECTRIC HAS UNVEILED A S FOR A ME A FACILITY THA WILL MAK ONE E-SCOOTER EVERY TWO SEC NDS. OLA HAS SET I S SIGH S ON CONQUERING THE WORLD, BUT BEFORE THAT, IT HAS TO CON END WITH LOCAL RIVALS AND INDIA’S ANAEMIC ELECTRIC VEHICES LES.

- PRERNA LIDHOO

“India has a very strong role to play in the future of electric and it is incumbent upon us to really push India on a global stage in this very necessary technology of the future.”

BHAVISHAG GARWAL CHAIR MAN AND GROUP CEO,OLA

“IT’S SIMPLISTIC TO say that ‘Ola is the Tesla of India’ or ‘the Uber of India’. But we’re not. We are the Ola of the world.”

Bhavish Aggarwal, the 35-year-old founder of ride-hailing unicorn Ola, minces no words when outlining the scale of ambition he has for Ola Electric. The past two months have been awash with news about the startup’s planned ₹2,400-crore mega factory in Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu. At its full capacity of 10 million units by next year, Ola’s Future Factory will roll out one electric scooter (e-scooter) every two seconds. Once completed, the 500-acre factory—the world’s largest two-wheeler plant— will account for 15% of the world’s two-wheeler production. Clearly, Aggarwal wants nothing less than an electric vehicle (EV) revolution.

“When we started offwith electric mobility, we had two choices: do we play incremental and small, or do we play disruptive and big? We chose the latter,” says Aggarwal, chairman and group CEO, Ola. “We have to play a technology game to compete with global leaders on a global stage. Our ambition is to be one of the world’s leading EV companies.” Ola Electric was carved out of Bengaluru-based Ola in 2017 and became a unicorn two years later, backed by Tiger Global, Matrix Partners, and SoftBank.