Indian electric vehicle (EV) maker Ola Electric has signed an agreement under the Government of India’s production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme to manufacture advanced cells in the country, becoming the only Indian EV company selected by the government under its ambitious Rs 80,000 crore cell PLI scheme, receiving the maximum capacity of 20 GWh for its bid in March.
Bhavish Aggarwal, CEO and Founder, Ola, said, “Today, 90 percent 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.”
Recently, Ola unveiled India’s first indigenously developed lithium-ion cell, NMC 2170, and is also invested in developing R&D to create indigenous advanced cell technologies. Ola Electric is investing about $500 million for setting up its battery innovation centre (BIC) in Bengaluru that will focus on core cell tech development and battery innovation out of India for the world.
BIC will house advanced laboratories and high-tech equipment for battery innovation for developing futuristic and localised cell tech. The company is also recruiting top cell R&D talent across the globe, and will employ 500 engineers.
