Ola's Bhavish Aggarwal seeks to make a E-scooter every 2 seconds at 'world's largest factory'

CioreviewIndia team | Monday, 08 March 2021, 05:13 IST

Bhavish Aggarwal surveys the empty 500-acre expanse encircled by neon-painted homes, tiny cairns and mango groves. The high-profile Ola founder expects to erect the world’s largest electric scooter plant on this vacant plot on Bangalore’s outskirts within the next 12 weeks, cranking out about 2 million a year — a landmark for one of India’s largest startups.

A two-and-a-half hour drive southeast of Bangalore, Aggarwal’s envisioned $330 million mega-factory marks a bold venture into uncharted territory for an entrepreneur who’s spent 10 years building a ride-hailing massive. His follow-up Ola Electric is getting into an electric vehicle market already crowded by names from Tesla Inc. to China’s Nio Inc. — albeit with a humble two-wheeler initially — but that could play in a $200 billion domestic EV industry in a decade.

If everything works according to plan, his Ola Electric Mobility Pvt hopes to make 10 million vehicles annually or 15% of the world’s e-scooters by the summer of 2022, starting with sales abroad later this year. That would be one scooter rolling out every two seconds after the plant expands next year. It’s the first step in Aggarwal’s goal to eventually assemble a full line-up of electric cars in a boost for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make in India and sustainable mobility ambitions.

“It’s a vehicle we’ve engineered ground-up so India can get a seat at the world EV table,” the 35-year-old said in an interview last week. Indian companies “have the smarts and energy to leapfrog into the future of EV.”

Ola's Bhavish Aggarwal seeks to make a E-scooter every 2 seconds at 'world's largest factory'

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