After expanding its cab services to the production of electric scooters, Ola is reportedly planning to enter the electric four-wheeler market. The production would be indigenous. Ola lately announced its intervention into the electric two-wheeler market and launched a factory to manufacture electric scooters in Tamil Nadu, Ola Electric.
Reportedly, the process has started getting a push. The company wants to fully utilise an early mover advantage as not many companies in India are right now in the nascent electric vehicle space.
The exact details of how the car will look have not been specified yet but according to some reports it will be built on a born-electric skateboard platform. The company will be looking at a futuristic design. Ola Electric is looking at a compact city car with an attractive price.
The design centre of Ola Electric will likely come up in Bengaluru. This will be a global design centre for its electric car division in Bengaluru. As reported Ola has already got itself a few Tata designers for its electric personal vehicle project
Ola’s growing interest in electric vehicle space
The company’s growing interest in this space is not unknown. The company is constructing a factory for its electric two-wheeler division with an investment of Rs 2,400 crore, in Tamil Nadu. The capacity of this plant is about 2 million e-two-wheelers.
Earlier this year, Ola’s CEO and chairman, Bhavish Aggarwal said in an interview that the company is aiming to enter the electric car market at some point.
Although growing steadily, the occupancy of Ola in the electric vehicle market is not yet very strong. However, the company with its intervention into the electric car sphere plans to offer it in two categories: one for private users and the other for the fleet segment.
Issue of charging an electric model
One of the gravest problems that India faces in regards to electric vehicles is the lack of an extensive charging network. Ola is however looking at this critical problem with its interest in the electric vehicle market.
According to various media reports, Ola has started off the process to establish the world’s largest EV charging network for its customers. This charging facility project is a five-year-long project and is expected to include about 1,00,000 EV charging stations across 400 cities in India.
The infrastructure has been picked up for its scooters till now. The company has not revealed if the company would be doing the same for other electric vehicles too.
Electric vehicle industry in India
The EV industry is still in its nascent stage with less than 1% of the total vehicle sales. However, analytics predict that this will rise up to 5% in the coming years.
Some of the players are Hero Eco, Ather, Electrotherm, Avon, Lohia, Ampere, and more. Most electric vehicles in India do not require registration and licenses. These are usually low -speed electric scooters. There are a number of E-Rickshaw players growing in India too in small quantities.