What is Ola Electric Mobility all about?
There are two very concerning issues that have been running in everybody’s minds these days. One is the fact that the earth is getting hotter and the global warming is creating a lot of problems to the environment like the recect Amazon rainforest fire. Read about it here. And the fuel prices that have been raising exponentially which all the more concerning because we are coming to the brink of the utilization of the fossil fuels.
The transport Industry is the single most Important and sole reason for the depletion of the fossil fuels in the world it contributes to a lot of pollution as well. Having had the majority of the share in contributing to the global warming. It is an important responsibility on the transport Industry that they ensure and find other sources to burn as fuel and to commute. With the explosion of the population there is a rapid increase in the way the world is consuming fossil fuels and how the pollution levels are increasing with every passing minute of everyday. To put an end to this Problem the Ola Electric Mobility was introduced.
How Ola Electric Mobility came into existence?
On the 26th of May 2017 Ola Electric Mobility came as a reality. The Government too has been striving to go ahead and try to adopt to more sustainable sources of energy that does not pollute the environment and is also not contributing to the rapid depletion of the fossil fuels. So along with the government Ola Electric mobility App was launched was a great step for India in general to come closer to the Paris treaty which has implied that all the cars must be converted to electric latest by 2020. The Launch was inaugurated by Niti Gadkari and Shri Devendra Fadnavis. The project just does not Include cabs but also, buses with Solar rooftops, autorickshaws that can be made electric and charging stations.
The man behind this project was solely Mr. Bhavish Aggarvalwho is also the man behind OLA cabs. The rate of diversification in the Ola company has been happening at an Unprecedented rate. The Ola Cabs services itself is already in the Unicorn club from a very long time in just few years of Inception and in just another 5 years there is another Flagship branch that has been opened that is under the Unicorn Club.
About the founders and the co-founders:
Bhavish Aggarwal hails from Ludhiana, Punjab but has lived in UK and Afghanistan while growing up. He studied Bachelor’s from Indian Institute of Management in Computer Science and Engineering. Followed by a short yet successful stint in Microsoft as an Intern and then as an Assistant Researcher filing about two patents and publishing a few papers. This is true evidence of his intelligence and hard-working nature. He also understood the importance of green mobility and hence started the Ola Electric Mobility. He has been in the Ola Industry from a very long time. He was the sole person responsible for Ola to scale to such great heights. Having completed that stint successfully, he has started Ola Electric Mobility. Rarely can you find people who are able to start two companiens that are both a part of the Unicorn Club in a span less than a decade and Bhavish Aggarwal has been the sole person who has been capable of doing that in India with his recent Venture, Ola Electric Mobility becoming a Unicorn member too.
Valuation and Investment:
The compay is now valued at $1 Billion with the largest round of funding coming from SoftBank who is providing the company with $259 million which has added to help Ola Electric Mobility to tip to the Elite group of Unicorn club through which it has become a worth of $1 Billion. There are a lot of others Investors who have had a lot of faith in the company and have invested in the same. One of it Being Ratan Tata who has mentioned that the company has a lot of potential and there is a lot of Faith and hope On Bhavish Aggaarwal. The Other Investors are ANI technologies, Tiger Global etc.
Journey so far:
The government just announced it need to be in Compliance with the Paris treaty where there needs to be a 30% adaptation towards the electric and Hybrid vehicles. The souring temperatures due to the global warming and the rapidly increasing temperatures and the choking pollution of a country like India that has a population that is increasing rapidly, it becomes really Important to adopt to much effective, clean, renewable sources of energy mostly for commute and transportation. Having had this thought in Mind Bhavish Agarwal who is also the founder of Ola jumped at this opportunity and with the collaboration with the government Launched the Ola Electric Mobility. The first Pilot project was in the city of Nagpur. Where the company just did not focus on the cabs but an overall clean energy service where the buses would have rooftop solar panels and the Company would be launching at least a 10,000 electric autos and a lot of cabs and buses. As the pilot project in the City of Nagpur started to pick up. The company started to grow and expand and funding started pouring in from Different sources.
Obstacles faced and overcome
Having the adaptation of Electric Vehicles is not an Easy task sinse it turns out to be extremely expensive and electric vehicles millage cannot be compared to the fuelled vehicles. It is difficult to find batteries that have such large storage capacities and hence there is no simple option to do this. But to solve that problem OLA came up with portable and exchangeable batteries and are trying to make the adaptation to electric Vehicles smoother. And with a lot of research they are trying to bring down the costs of the currently expensive batteries.
Expansion and future plan
Ola Electric Mobility has a sole purpose of trying to help the government Achieve it’s initiative to have 30% adaptation to electric vehicles by 2020
Impact on the society
It is going to be a great boon in trying to get the pollution and impact of the green house gases lower. And that is a great service to a country like India where the pollution levels are increasing by the day.
