Ola Plans Premium Electric Car For Indian Market

SoftBank-backed Indian ride-hailing firm Ola Electric has said it plans to enter the increasingly crowded market for electric vehicles in 2024 with its first electric car.

The company launched a line of electric sit-down scooters last August and began delivering them in December 2021.

At a press conference on Monday chief executive Bhavish Aggarwal said the company aims to initially offer a higher-end car but would eventually sell a full line-up including lower-priced cars and scooters.

“We will definitely have cars at the entry price market. We’re starting with a premium car and that comes out in 18 to 24 months,” he said, according to local media reports.

Future Factory

He said the company was targeting sales of a million cars a year but did not give a timeframe for this goal.

The company’s first electric car would be able to accelerate from 0 to 100 km per hour in four seconds and would have a range of up to 500 km on a single charge, Aggarwal said.

Of the decision to start with a high-end vehicle Aggarwal said the country needed “a car that defines this new India, an India that is fearless and believes in writing its own destiny”.

He said the company is expanding its massive Tamil Nadu plant, called the Future Factory, to produce cars, two-wheelers and batteries.

IPO delay

Ola Electric has sold 70,000 electric two-wheelers in the past seven months and is in the process of setting up 100 electric charging stations in major cities in India, Aggarwal said.

Ola had planned to go public in the first half of this year, but the IPO has been delayed amidst turbulent market conditions.

Indian car maker Mahindra & Mahindra said this week that it would use a Volkswagen platform as the basis for a range of five SUVs that it intends to launch starting in late 2024.