Bhavish Aggarwal: Ola Has No Plans To Sell Battery Packs To Other Carmakers

• New locally-developed lithium ion cell to be used in production vehicles from 2023 onwards. 

• Will also power Ola’s first electric car that arrives in 2024. 

• Futurefactory to produce 100GWh of battery capacity annually at full scale. 

Indian electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Ola is planning to establish a massive battery production facility capable of producing up to 100GWh of battery packs annually. However, CEO Bhavish Aggarwal has said that Ola will not produce battery components for other carmakers, at least in the initial phase of development. 

Battery packs will be built at Ola’s Futurefactory manufacturing complex in Tamil Nadu using the locally developed the 2170 lithium ion cell that will be manufactured from 2023 onwards. It’ll power production EVs starting from late 2023. 

At its full capacity, the Futurefactory will be capable of producing 10 lakh units of the EV, in addition to 1 crore two-wheelers and 100GWh of EV batteries. The battery production will only cater to Ola’s own two-wheelers and electric car in the initial phase of the Futurefactory’s development. 

Also read: 

• Ola Announces First Electric Car Concept, EV Due To Arrive By Mid 2024

• Ola Develops India’s First Locally Manufactured Lithium-ion cell For Its EVs 

• Ola Electric To Manufacture Lithium-ion Battery Cells Locally 

The battery is one of the core components of an electric car, and local battery manufacturing will go a long way to make electric cars more affordable in India. After its initial development phase, we could see Ola Electric collaborate with other carmakers to share EV components and batteries. 

That said, Ola isn’t the only automaker eyeing the prospect of battery manufacturing in India. Recently, Volkswagen and Mahindra signed an agreement that paves the way for localised battery and cell production.