Ola Electric Mobility Pvt., an electric scooter maker, is on track to deliver its first four-wheel vehicle in the second half of 2024, says Chief Financial Officer G.R. Arun Kumar.
The company is focused on advanced stages of design and benefits from the sharing of some technology deployed in its two-wheeler products. “Software, safety systems, electronics, cells, the drive train — a lot of it is common. We think we’re 30%-40% there,” Kumar said on the side-lines of the India Energy Week forum.
Last year, Ola’s founder, Bhavish Aggarwal, said the company aimed to price its first car at less than $50,000, manufacturing components such as lithium-ion cells and batteries in-house to lower costs.
Ola aims to compete with the likes of Tesla Inc., Hyundai Motor Co., and local rivals such as Tata Group in India’s electric vehicle market, which consultancy RBSA Advisors forecasts to be worth more than $150 billion by 2030.
Ola is also making progress on its target to deliver an eventual 100-gigawatt hours of battery-cell manufacturing capacity by adding local plants.
According to Kumar, in addition to its own consumption, Ola could potentially sell lithium-ion cells to other parties for use in vehicles, grid balancing, or energy storage. “We’d be very open to selling outside,” he said. “It’s all contingent on how the demand side shapes up.”
