Ola Electric inks PLI agreement to mass manufacture cells in India

- Signs PLI (Production Linked Incentive) agreement 

- Will mass produce lithium-ion cells in India by 2023

- This could help to lower the scooter production cost

Ola Electric has recently PLI (Production Linked Incentive) agreement with the MHI (Ministry of Heavy Industries) for its lithium-ion cell mass production. CEO, Bhavish Aggarwal announced the same on his social media handles. 

In the PLI scheme, the government has allotted Rs 80,000 crore. Ola becomes the first Indian EV manufacturer to secure Rs 18,100 crore for the Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) battery storage (from the total amount of Rs 80,000 crore). Earlier this month, Ola had already announced that it is working on an indigenous cell. 

Moreover, the CEO also announced that the company is building a Battery Innovation Centre (BIC) in Bengaluru. That said, the cells will be mass produced at Ola’s Tamil Nadu-based Gigafactory.

With an in-house manufactured cell, the overall cost of production could be lowered gradually. This will likely translate to faster EV adoption and thereby more advancement as well. Currently, Ola only has the S1 e-scooter in its portfolio. It’s available in two variants: standard and Pro. 

We have the S1 Pro as our long-termer and the introduction report is already out. Ola is also set to roll out the Move OS3 update for its e-scooter very soon.