Over the past few years, Ola has become a household name in India as hired mobility solutions have grown in popularity. Talking about growth in popularity, electric vehicles are all the rage nowadays with almost all the manufacturers foraying in the segment. Ola is planning a grand entry into the segment with its first electric scooter. India-headquartered Ola has already commenced construction of the world’s largest two-wheeler mega-factory on its 500-acre site. And now, the company has released the first teaser images of its electric scooter.
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Ola’s first electric scooter looks similar to the state-of-the-art, tech-laden Etergo Appscooter. In May 2020, Ola Electric Mobility acquired Etergo BV.
Etergo BV is an innovative electric scooter OEM founded in 2014 and based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, thereby announcing its entry into the premium electric two-wheeler market, both globally and nationally. First revealed in 2018, the AppScooter uses swappable high energy density batteries to deliver a range up to 240km and class-leading acceleration of 0-45kph in 3.9 seconds. It also comes with TFT instrumentation.
The company announced a Rs 2400 crore MoU with the Tamil Nadu government in December 2020 and rapidly completed land acquisition in January this year. The company is racing ahead to operationalise its factory in the next few months. An estimated more than 10 million man-hours have been planned to bring the factory up in record time, with the first phase becoming operational in the coming months. Through this entire process, Ola is maintaining its strong focus on sustainability. The company has ensured the conservation of the green belt in the area by preserving and transplanting the trees on site.
Ola plans to have a large forest area within the site and reuse the excavated soil and rocks within the factory. Ola’s mega-factory will have an initial capacity of 2M units a year in phase 1 and will serve as the company’s global manufacturing hub for its range of electric-powered scooters and two-wheelers across India and international markets including Europe, UK, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Australia and New Zealand. Expected to create 10,000 jobs, the factory will incorporate Industry 4.0 principles and will be powered by Ola’s own proprietary AI Engine and tech stack that will be deeply integrated into all its systems.
The factory is also expected to be the country’s most automated, with about 5,000 robots and automated guided vehicles in use once it is operational to its full capacity. The company has already brought on board global partners and suppliers as it works towards getting its factory, billed to be the world’s largest scooter factory, operational in the coming months.