Ola Electric Signs PLI Agreement For Local Manufacturing of Battery Cells

Ola Electric signed has signed an agreement with the Ministry Of Heavy Industries under the Product Linked Incentive scheme to locally manufacture battery cells in India. The two parties signed the agreement on July 28. Ola said that it was the only Indian EV company to receive the maximum 20GWh capacity under the PLI scheme. The company had made a bid for the PLI scheme in March.

Speaking on the announcement, Bhavish Aggarwal, CEO and Founder, Ola, said, “Today, 90% of global capacity for cell manufacturing is in China, and to reverse this import dependency locally manufactured cell technology is key. The ACC PLI scheme will be instrumental in making India self-reliant and localizing the most critical aspects of the EV value chain. At Ola, our roadmap to develop cell technology and manufacturing is vigorously progressing; making us a stronger vertically integrated mobility company across - products, mobility services and tech.”

Earlier this month Ola Electric revealed its first indigenously developed lithium-ion battery cell

The company earlier this month revealed its first indigenously developed lithium-ion cell called NMC 2170 with plans to put it into mass production from 2023. The company is in the process of setting up a new 50 GWh Gigafactory to focus on battery cell manufacturing in the country with the company saying it had already roped in suppliers from Germany, Korea and Japan among other hubs for raw materials.

Ola is also set to open its Battery Innovation Centre (R&D centre) sometime next month with the goal of researching and developing battery technologies in-house for future use.

The company is looking to expand from just making electric scooters to making electric cars as well

Ola Electric has also been bullish on the vehicle manufacturing front following the launch of its first electric scooter. The company is eyeing expanding into the electric four-wheeler market in the near future with the manufacturer already having teased at least three separate concepts at a recent customer event at its Gigafactory.