Ola to invest Rs 3,995 crore in new battery R&D facility

Ola Electric has announced an investment of $500 million (around Rs 3,995 crore) to set-up a state-of-the-art EV battery R&D facility, dubbed Battery Innovation Center (BIC) in Bangalore.

The company claims “BIC will be one of the world’s largest and most advanced cell R&D facilities with over 165 unique and cutting-edge lab equipment to cover all aspects of cell related research and development.”

The BIC will host prototype lines that can produce cylindrical, pouch, coin and prismatic cells. The innovation centre will have capabilities to develop complete packages of battery pack design, fabrication and testing under one roof. The centre will also be equipped with in-house production capability of mg to kg scale of anode and cathode material, an integrated facility for Hand-in-Hand Nanoscale analysis and Molecular Dynamics simulation and an in-house crystal structure analysis to develop new battery materials. 

BIC will also be equipped with physical characteristics labs that will have the latest high-tech research equipment. Ola says, “BIC will recruit top global talent including 500 PhDs and engineers who will be supported by an additional 1000 researchers in India and multiple other global centres.”

Bhavish Aggarwal, founder and CEO, Ola Electric said, “Electric mobility is a high growth sector which is R&D intensive. Ola’s Battery Innovation Centre in Bangalore will be the cornerstone for core cell tech development and battery innovation out of India for the world.”

While it’s early days yet in the ongoing fiscal year, Ola Electric is at present the market leader, ahead of FY2022’s top five EV players – Hero Electric, Okinawa, Ampere Vehicles, Ather Energy and Pure Energy. In Q1 FY2023 (April-June 2022), Okinawa, with 27,293 units is at second position, followed by Ampere Vehicles with 18,915 units, Hero Electric with 15,929 units and Ather 9,596 units.

Ola's indigenously developed lithium-ion cell, NMC 2170.

Ola recently unveiled its first Li-ion cell – NMC 2170. Built in-house, Ola will begin the mass production of its cell from its upcoming Gigafactory by 2023. The company was recently also allocated 20GWh capacity under the ACC PLI scheme by the Government of India for developing advanced cells in the country, and is setting up a cutting-edge cell manufacturing facility with an initial capacity of up to 20 GWh, localising the most critical part of the EV value chain.