Ola on Monday announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the state government in Tamil Nadu to establish what would be the world’s largest scooter factory with an annual capacity of two million units. To be built at a cost of ₹2,400 crore, the factory will help create around 10,000 jobs.
With a view to cater to local as well as global demand, Ola says the factory will not only help create jobs but will improve the level of technical expertise in India while focusing on local manufacturing, especially in the field of electric mobility. Units manufactured here will also be shipped to European, Asian and Latin American markets and Ola expects the plant to become a major hub for the manufacturing of EVs.
Ola is gearing up to launch its first electric scooter in the upcoming months – sources say as early as January – and the plant in Tamil Nadu will help realize its dreams of having a more comprehensive product portfolio. “We are excited to announce our plans to set up the world’s largest scooter factory. This is a significant milestone for Ola and a proud moment for our country as we rapidly progress towards realising our vision of moving the world to sustainable mobility solutions across shared and owned mobility,” said Bhavish Aggarwal, Chairman and Group CEO, Ola.
The factory will produce Ola’s upcoming range of two wheeler products starting with Ola’s electric scooter. Earlier this year Ola announced plans to hire over 2,000 people for its electric business as it rapidly builds a suite of electric and smart urban mobility solutions for consumers around the world.
Speaking at a CII event in November, Aggarwal had said there are four broad segments of vehicles, including large commercial vehicles (buses and trucks), western-style four-wheelers, Asian and European style four-wheelers (small city cars), and two and three-wheelers. “Our ambition is to be the leader in electric mobility for the small vehicles and small city four-wheelers. And unlike Tesla or many of the American companies, which are building for their own audiences, we have to build for our audiences. India is the world’s largest two-wheeler market. Asia is 80-90% of the global two-wheeler market,” he had explained.
