Ola Electric is in talks with multiple global suppliers to build a battery cell manufacturing plant in India with a capacity of up to 50-gigawatt hours (GwH), as per sources.
As part of its broader electrification push, the firm plans to invest in companies with advanced cell and battery technology, alongside the 50Gwh battery plant.
Ola Electric needs 40Gwh of battery capacity to power 10 million electric scooters annually.
The remainder will be for its electric cars, which the company plans to manufacture in the future.
Sources said the cell battery plant may cost around $1 billion (approx. Rs. 7,780 crore) and may be built with an initial capacity of 1Gwh, which will be expand in the future.
Over 40 global suppliers are already in Bengaluru to meet with Ola founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal at the company’s headquarters and are also visiting the Ola Futurefactory in Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu this week, sources aware of the matter said.
Ola Electric said, has initiated talks with global suppliers from Germany, Korea, Japan, and other hubs to fuel its battery manufacturing ambitions.
It currently imports its battery cells from South Korea.
Companies like Dürr and Siemens also seem to be on the list of suppliers.
The battery cell manufacturing sector is dominate by the likes of CATL, LG, Energy Solutions, and Panasonic, which supply to automakers such as Tesla and Volkswagen.
Industry experts believe that one of the world’s youngest EV companies is keen to begin cell manufacturing by next year.
Bhavish Aggarwal has already state that India can soon replace China and emerge as the global hub for electric vehicles (EVs).
Towards this end, Ola plans to develop the entire ecosystem cell and battery tech, global supply chains, interconnect as well as autonomous vehicle technologies.
Ola Electric is the only Indian auto and EV company that has select by the government under its ambitious Rs. 80,000 crore cell PLI scheme to set up an advance cell manufacturing factory in 2 years.
Its cell Production Link Incentive (PLI) bid was for the maximum allow bid capacity of 20GWh.
According to sources, Ola is also looking to set up an even larger 50GWh gigafactory and a battery innovation centre to support its two-wheeler and four-wheeler roadmap for India and the world.
