Amid Uncertainty Due To Two-Wheeler EV Fire Incidents, Ola Electric Unveils New Car Design

Bhavish Aggarwal-led electric mobility startup Ola Electric has unveiled the design of its future electric car at a customer event at the Ola Futurefactory in Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu recently.

While talking about Ola Electric’s journey so far and its future endeavours, founder and CEO Aggarwal revealed the look of its upcoming electric car in a sneak peek video. Reportedly planned for a late-2023 launch, details about Ola cars, including information about car booking, would be revealed on August 15, said Aggarwal at the event.

“We are always going to build the world’s best products, that’s my commitment to you, that’s our commitment to the entire customer base. We will always build the best in the world,” added Aggarwal after presenting the video of Ola’s upcoming electric four-wheeler.

The startup had posted a picture of its concept car in January this year too soon after completing its $200 Mn round at a valuation of $5 Bn.

Moreover, Aggarwal took on Tesla boss Elon Musk last month after the latter said that the automotive giant would not set up a manufacturing plant in India. 

After much tussles with the Indian government for reducing import duties for Tesla electric cars, Musk has put expansion plans in the country on hold as the government wants the company to first start local manufacturing.

In fact, Ola Electric became one of the beneficiaries of the Indian government’s INR 18,100 Cr Production Linked Incentives (PLI) scheme and was expected to receive incentives for 20-gigawatt hours (GWh) capacity. In a bid to boost the country’s electric vehicle (EV) ecosystem, the government launched the PLI scheme last year for manufacturing advanced chemistry cell (ACC) batteries. 

As per the latest report, Ola Electric is building a battery cell manufacturing plant in India with a capacity of up to 50-gigawatt (Gwh) hours, and talks with global suppliers from Korea, Germany, Japan and other countries have begun. Earlier this month, over 40 global suppliers were set to visit the Ola Futurefactory in Krishnagiri.

During the customer event at Ola Futurefactory, the startup also launched its latest MoveOS 2 software update for Ola S1 Pro escooters. It claimed in its launch that the new software update would provide “greater convenience, enhanced accessibility” to Ola S1 Pro escooters.

“The Move OS 2 update also promises bug fixes that were previously found in isolated instances such as range drop, battery discharge and other minor areas,” said Ola Electric in a statement.

Meanwhile, the electric mobility startup has come under negative light after its Ola S1 Pro scooters caught fire in Pune earlier in March. The incident was followed by the accident of a Guwahati man getting injured due to a fault in the Ola S1 Pro scooter’s regenerative braking system. The incident invited considerable mud-slinging. However, Ola Electric concluded that the accident took place due to the vehicle overspeeding. 

It is to be noted here that, after the government think tank NITI Aayog nudged EV manufacturers to voluntarily recall batches of vehicles involved in fire incidents, Ola Electric had to recall 1,441 units of its Ola S1 Pro scooter in April. 

The initial findings of such fire incidents reports said there were issues with Ola Electric’s battery cells as well as the battery management system.

Including Ola, over 7,000 escooters manufactured by other EV two-wheeler players have been recalled in India so far.

As per Vahan data, Ola Electric saw a 27.3% month-on-month (MoM) decline in its vehicle sales in May. Its May sales volume stood at 9,230 units versus 12,702 units in April. India’s overall two-wheeler EV sales also declined about 20% MoM last month to report total sales of 39,477 units.