Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal appears on screen during a presentation in August 15, 2021. The corporate’s EV-arm, Ola Electric, plans to launch an electrical automotive in 2024.
Samyukta Lakshmi | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The CEO of Ola Electric said Monday his firm would launch an all-electric vehicle that may go from 0 to 100 kilometers per hour (just over 62 mph) in 4 seconds, because the race to realize a foothold in India’s fledgling EV sector intensifies.
In a video presentation, Bhavish Aggarwal offered up a lot of details in regards to the Indian-built vehicle, which will likely be its first electric automotive.
It could, he said, have a spread of over 500 kilometers per charge (around 310 miles), an all-glass roof, and assisted driving capability. The EV would even be keyless and “handle-less.” The corporate plans to launch the vehicle in 2024.
“Global automakers think that the Indian market will not be ready for world-class technology and, hence, sell their hand-me-down tech in India,” he said. This needed to be modified, he added.
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Monday also saw Aggarwal announce plans to develop what he called a “full-EV hub” by expanding the corporate’s “Futurefactory” in Tamil Nadu state, which currently focuses on the production of two-wheel electric vehicles.
At full scale, he said the prolonged facility would produce 1 million cars, 10 million two-wheelers and 100-gigawatt hours of cells annually. “This … reimagined Ola Futurefactory goes to be the world’s largest EV ecosystem at a single site,” Aggarwal said.
Ola Electric is the EV arm of ride-hailing firm Ola, which was established in 2011. Each Ola and Ola Electric have attracted investment from SoftBank Group.
India, which is heading in the right direction to turn into the planet’s most populous country next yr, is something of an untapped market on the subject of electric cars, lagging behind China, the European Union and the U.S.
“In Brazil, India and Indonesia, fewer than 0.5% of automotive sales are electric,” the International Energy Agency’s Global EV Outlook notes.
Ola’s enterprise into India’s electric automotive market will see it compete with Tata Motors and Mahindra Electric Mobility, amongst others. In keeping with the IEA, Tata’s Nexon BEV SUV was India’s best-selling electric automotive in 2021.
