Ola invests ₹2,400 Cr to Set up ‘World’s Largest’ E-Scooter Manufacturing Plant in Tamil Nadu
By: Ashwathy Nair
- The aim is to make India a manufacturing hub for EVs.
- An MoU has been signed by Ola with the government of Tamil Nadu.
- In the coming months, the company is eager to launch its highly anticipated e-scooters.
After six months of acquiring the Dutch start-up Etergo B.V., it has been announced by Ola Electric that it is planning to set up the ‘world’s largest’ electric scooter (e-scooter) manufacturing plant in Hosur, Tamil Nadu for which, Ola is investing ₹2,400 crores ($320 million).
The aim of the SoftBank-backed company is towards making India a manufacturing hub for electric vehicles (EVs). For this facility, an MoU has been signed by Ola with the government of Tamil Nadu.
Almost 10,000 jobs will be created by the factory upon the completion and it will be initially having an annual capacity of 2 million units.
The chairman and group chief executive officer of Ola, Bhavish Kumar stated that they are extremely excited to announce their plans towards setting up the world’s largest scooter factory. He says that the factory would be recognized as having one of the most advanced manufacturing facilities in the world. Skill and talent of India would be showcased to produce world-class products that would be catered to global markets.
This moment is considered as a significant milestone for Ola as well as a proud moment for our country as we are rapidly progressing towards realizing the vision of moving to sustainable mobility solutions across shared as well as owned mobility.
The factory of Ola will not only be serving Indian customers but also in markets the world over, which includes Europe, Asia, and Latin America.
The company is eagerly waiting for the launch of its first range of highly anticipated e-scooters in the coming months. The new manufacturing plant will help to take mobility into a more sustainable, accessible and connected future.
The investment move by the company has placed it in direct competition with makers of legacy electric two-wheeler like Ather Energy, Hero Electric, and, TVS Motor Company.
Last year, a $250 million was raised by Ola-Electric from Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank.
It was stated by the company that in line with the vision by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the factory of Ola was an important step towards making India ‘atmanirbhar’. It would be catalyzing the reduction of India’s import dependence in a key future sector such as EVs, boosting up of local manufacturing, creating jobs, and improving technical expertise in the country.
