Ola Electric, one of India's leading manufacturer of electric vehicles (EVs), has announced setting up a new global centre for advanced engineering and vehicle design in the UK. The Ola Futurefoundry, as it will be called, will be based in Coventry, in the UK. According to Ola Electric, the Ola Futurefoundry will work in synch with the design and engineering teams based at the Ola Campus in Bengaluru, India. The Futurefoundry will house global talent across multiple disciplines of two-wheeler and four-wheeler vehicle design, advanced high-performance automotive engineering, digital and physical modelling. The centre will also have experts that will focus on vehicle R&D around new energy systems, including cell technologies.
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The Ola S1 electric scooters are manufactured at the Ola Futurefactory, which claims to be the largest electric two-wheeler factory in the world once it achieves its full capacity.
According to the company, Ola Electric will invest more than $100 million over the next 5 years into the state-of-the-art centre and will employ over 200 designers and automotive engineers. The centre will also partner with world class education and research institutions in the UK to collaborate on technology research and development, the company added.
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Bhavish Aggarwal, Founder and CEO, Ola, says his company is ramping up production to meet demand from consumers and to negate delays in delivery.
Bhavish Aggarwal, Founder & CEO, Ola said, "At Ola we are building the future of mobility and continue to attract the best global talent across disciplines. Ola Futurefoundry will enable us to tap into the fantastic automotive design and engineering talent in the UK to create the next generation of electric vehicles. Futurefoundry will work in close collaboration with our headquarters in Bangalore, India to help us build the future of mobility as we make EVs affordable across the world."
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"We want to create a world class design and R&D team with global sensibilities. Ola Futurefoundry is an important step in building a multi-disciplinary team that is agile, flexible, and responsive to the various needs of our consumers around the world. We are setting up in Coventry a global epicenter of automotive and technology talent. Futurefoundry will supplement and collaborate with our core team in Bangalore, India to deliver exciting new EVs across two-wheeler, four-wheeler and other form factors," said Wayne Burgess, Vice President of Vehicle Design, Ola Electric.
The Ola S1 electric scooter gets maximum range of 181 km with maximum top speed of 115 kmph in the S1 Pro variant
Ola Electric currently has the Ola S1 electric scooters in production, manufactured at the company's Futurefactory in Tamil Nadu. The manufacturing facility promises to be the world's largest electric scooter factory with an installed production capacity of 10 million (1 crore) units per annum. The facility will employ over 10,000 women at full capacity and will also be the world's largest women-only automotive manufacturing facility. Ola Electric currently follows a direct to consumer model, with fully digital purchase of its electric scooters, with doorstep delivery and after-sales service. The company doesn't have a dealership model.
