Ola Electric to give India its first Gigafactory next year: CEO Bhavish Aggarwal

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Ola Electric founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal in a conversation with ETNow on Wednesday. «By next year, the Gigafactory will be up and working which will help in reducing the price of the vehicles,» said Aggarwal. As per the CEO, the initial capacity of the Gigafactory will be 5 GWh. At full scale, the factory will have 100 GWh capacity, which will also be the world's largest battery manufacturing unit.

While talking about the cost component of the EVs, he comments on the current situation where batteries for Indian consumption have to be imported. «We import it from Korea. It makes up for almost one-third or sometimes even 40 per cent of the EV manufacturing cost,» said the founder. He added that his company for the past two and half years has been working towards manufacturing Lithium-ion technology cells domestically. «We want to be self-reliant on our energy needs,» said Aggarwal on his initiatives to produce products in India. For the next three years, Ola Electric's focus will be to double the sale of its existing products, said CEO on his future plans for the company to ETNow. «We want every Indian to have our product as well international market,» said Aggarwal. «People have been skeptical of electrifying motorbikes but we believe there is no reason to not electrify motor bikes in coming times,» commented Aggrawal. On Tuesday, Ola Electric launched its new entry-level electric scooter S1X with introductory price of Rs 79,999 as it accelerates its challenge to conventional engine counterparts. The company also showcased its four electric motorcycles which will be launched towards the end of 2024. «Petrol prices go in