Ola Electric inks pact with heavy industries ministry under PLI scheme for cell manufacturing
- ByStartupStory | July 29, 2022
On Thursday, the electric mobility startup Ola Electric announced that it had signed an agreement with the Ministry of Heavy Industries under the government’s Production Linked Incentive (PLI) plan to produce advanced chemistry cells for EVs in India. The Indian government had authorized the PLI program for creating EV battery cells in 2021 at an anticipated cost of INR 18,100 Cr. Ola Electric, with Rajesh Exports, Hyundai Global Motors Company, and many others, were chosen for the plan in March of this year and will earn incentives for 20-gigawatt hours (GWh) of battery storage capacity.
According to Ola Electric’s most recent announcement, it is the first Indian EV startup to get incentives under the Advanced Cell Chemistry (ACC) PLI scheme. “Today, 90 percent of global cell manufacturing capacity is in China, and locally made cell technology is critical to reversing this import reliance,” Ola CEO & founder Bhavish Aggarwal stated. “The ACC PLI program will be important in empowering India and localizing the most key aspects of the EV value chain.”
Ola’s vision to expand cell technology & manufacturing is advancing rapidly, making it a more vertically integrated mobility firm spanning goods, mobility services, and technology, according to Aggarwal. Ola Electric announced its first indigenously built lithium-ion (Li-ion) cell, the NMC 2170, earlier this month. Its mass manufacturing is set to start in 2023.
It is worth noting that, while Ola Electric is receiving government help to produce EV battery cells in the nation, the company is also being investigated for fires that occurred with its electrical two-wheelers earlier this year. Aside from Ola Electric, the automobiles of Okinawa Autotech, Pure EV, & Jitendra EV all caught fire this year, raising questions about battery safety and quality standards. The government has also issued show-cause orders to several firms in connection with the fires.
Ola Electric intends to begin manufacturing electric four-wheelers by next year as well. Ola Electric, which led the way in e-scooter registrations early this year, has seen a drop in registrations over the previous three months. Its car registrations fell by more than 27% month on month (MoM) to 9,255 units in May, down from 12,703 units in April. According to Vahan statistics as of July 4, registrations fell by more than 36% month on month in June, reaching 5,883 units.
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