Ola Electric CEO Bhavish Aggarwal said that his company will launch an electric vehicle that can go up to 100 kilometers per hour (over 62 mph) in four seconds.
This step Ola took as a first step to gain a foothold in the fledgling and growing EV sector in India.
In the video presentation, Aggarwal offers a number of details about the Indian-made vehicle.
The electric car will have a range of more than 500 kilometers per charge, a glass roof and assisted driving capability. The EV will also come without a key and without a doorknob. The company plans to launch the vehicle in 2024.
“Global automakers think that the Indian market is not ready for world-class technology and, therefore, are selling their hand-me-down technology in India,” he said. “This needs to change,” he added.
At the same time he also announced plans to develop what he calls a “full-EV hub” by expanding the company’s “Futurefactory” in the state of Tamil Nadu, which currently focuses on the production of electric two-wheeled vehicles.
At full scale, he said the expanded plant facilities would produce 1 million cars, 10 million two-wheelers and batteries with a total capacity of 100 gigawatt hours annually. “This redesigned Ola Futurefactory will be the world’s largest EV ecosystem in one location,” he said.
Ola Electric is the EV arm of ride-hailing company Ola, which was founded in 2011. Both Ola and Ola Electric have attracted investment from the SoftBank Group.
India itself is an untapped market when it comes to electric cars, lagging behind China, the European Union and the US.
“In Brazil, India and Indonesia, less than 0.5% of car sales are electric,” notes the International Energy Agency’s Global EV Outlook.
Ola’s venture into the Indian electric car market will see him compete with Tata Motors and Mahindra Electric Mobility, among others. According to the IEA, Tata’s Nexon BEV SUV is India’s best-selling electric car in 2021.
Ola Electric unveils its first Indian-made battery cell, mass production from 2023