India’s ride-sharing giant Ola has announced that it is investing Rs. 2,400 crores to set up a new facility in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. This facility will be used to manufacture electric scooters.
Initially, the factory will be manufacturing 2 million scooters and will create nearly 10,000 jobs. Units manufactured in this facility will meet local requirements and also be shipped to European, Asian, and Latin American markets.
“We are excited to announce our plans to set up the world’s largest scooter factory. This is a significant milestone for Ola and a proud moment for our country as we rapidly progress towards realising our vision of moving the world to sustainable mobility solutions across shared and owned mobility,” said Bhavish Aggarwal, Chairman and Group CEO, Ola.
Ola became serious about electric vehicles last year and planned to bring one million battery-powered vehicles by 2022. Pandemic obviously affected its mission, but the company is still serious about electric vehicles. Initially, the company was planning for electric cars but now Electric Scooters are the first priority.
Ola hired Jose Pinheiro, General Motors’ veteran, as global head of manufacturing and operations for its electric business last month and Julien Geffard, formerly at Peugeot Motorcycles, last week. It shows Ola’s aggressive push in the electric vehicle segment.
The Indian government is also pushing cleaner fuel technology to reduce its oil import and curb air pollution.
