Ola Electric will do EV every 2 seconds

Bhavish Aggarwal examines the empty 500-acre expanse surrounded by neon-painted houses, tiny shrines, and mango trees. High-profile founder Ola hopes to erect the world’s largest electric scooter factory on this vacant lot on the outskirts of Bangalore within the next 12 weeks, with around 2 million a year – a benchmark for one of the largest startups from India.

A two-and-a-half-hour drive southeast of Bangalore, the estimated $330 million Aggarwal mega-factory marks a daring foray into uncharted territory for an entrepreneur who spent 10 years building a giant carpooling. Its follow-up Ola Electric is entering an electric vehicle market already crowded with names ranging from Tesla Inc. to Nio Inc. in China – albeit with a humble two-wheeler to begin with – but it could play into a domestic electric vehicle industry. $200 billion in a decade.

If all goes according to plan, its Ola Electric Mobility Pvt hopes to manufacture 10 million vehicles a year, or 15% of the world’s electric scooters by summer 2022, starting with overseas sales later this year. . It would be a scooter that rolls every two seconds after the plant expands next year. This is the first step in Aggarwal s goal of eventually assembling a full range of electric cars to boost Prime Minister Narendra Modi s ambitions in India and sustainable mobility.

“It’s a vehicle we’ve designed so India can take a seat at the global electric vehicle table,” the 35-year-old said in an interview last week. Indian companies “have the intelligence and the energy to embark on the future of EV.”

Aggarwal is entering the market just as the core cycling business slows down during the pandemic. Smoke-spitting scooters and motorcycles remain the most popular mode of transportation in smog-infamous Indian cities, 21 of which were among the top 30 most polluted urban centers in the world in 2019. But the country is now pushing electric vehicles and the battery life of technologies that could, according to the CEEW Center for Energy Finance think tank, support a $206 billion EV market in 10 years.

It won’t be easy. Middle-class Indians are worried about air quality but are reluctant – at current prices – to shell out twice the price of a regular scooter for an electric version. Aggarwal will also have to fight off competition not only from local rivals Hero MotoCorp and Bajaj Auto, but also new entrants such as Ather Energy and Chinese brands including Niu Technologies.

Read more: Why a start-up founder turned down a $1.1 billion SoftBank deal

The entrepreneur takes inspiration from Tesla, Nio and Xpeng Inc., which have outperformed established auto giants with ever cheaper batteries and live software capabilities, but takes a different approach. He wants to sell affordable two, three and four wheel vehicles for urban journeys. Our ambition is to build the world leader in urban mobility in electric vehicles, he said.

Ola Electric is the second act of Aggarwal. Ten years ago, he pioneered ridesharing in the country and hired Uber Technologies Inc., expanding into 200 cities before moving overseas to the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Its EV startup was incorporated in 2017 and grew into a billion dollar company, or unicorn, two years later when SoftBank Group Corp. and Tiger Global Management have disbursed hundreds of millions of dollars. It was the second time for the pair of global investors, even though Aggarwal had fought them to keep control of Ola.

This time he’s even more firmly in the driver’s seat. It also obtained capital from Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp. and recently won over more funders whose names he did not want to reveal.

We are very well capitalized and the interest from investors is unprecedented, said Aggarwal.

Aggarwal, who often pauses to ask What do you think? Initially wants to introduce five two-wheeler models, including consumer, premium and self-balancing versions. Even more boldly, he wants to get the first electric cars on Indian roads in 18 to 24 months. He’s talking about someday selling autonomous vehicles and futuristic four-wheelers that don’t look like cars.

Read more: The next big wave of tech unicorn lists could be in India This particular Thursday, he sneaked on a stylish scooter prototype through the office park in the Koramangala neighborhood, the epicenter of the startup scene of Bangalore. It showed new lighting, removable batteries and a large storage trunk. His plan is to sell the scooters digitally as well as through dealerships, offering monthly payment plans to make it easier for buyers.

Electric vehicles now represent less than 1% of all cars sold, according to consultancy firm KPMG and the Confederation of Indian Industry. In India, battery-powered scooters could represent between a quarter and 35% of the two-wheeler market by 2030, and three-wheeled vehicles – popular locally – 65% to 75% by then. crack the Indian market, and it comes down to running cost per mile. Aggarwal has yet to reveal pricing, but said its product will compete with traditional scooters for around $1,000 each. “We will reduce costs by playing on a large scale.”

To keep costs down, Ola designs, designs and manufactures its own battery pack, engine, computer and software. Like Tesla, he wants to cut costs by building his own electric cells. It tests charging solutions and battery exchange stations. Last year it acquired Amsterdam-based smart scooter start-up Etergo BV to relaunch its own scooter manufacturing.

The Ola factory site will house more than 3,000 robots working alongside 10,000 workers. Software built by its team of 1,000 members – mostly engineers – will distribute the work. The roof of the factory will be covered with solar panels and will be carbon negative. Two supplier parks located at either end of the complex will produce about half of the scooter components needed and Aggarwal oversees everything scrupulously. Once a week, he walks around the site to check the progress. On other days, cameras mounted on large pipes around the site relay the action directly to his office. His pride is evident: a graduate of the elite Indian Institute of Technology, he said he designed the automated e-scooter storage, retrieval and delivery system and obtained a patent for it.

“It must be useful sometimes, right?” he said of his upbringing, using the popular Hindi expression kahin toh kaam aana chahiye na .