Ola Electric Suspends Production; Is It For Annual Maintenance Or It’s Recent EV Fire Incidents?

Ola Electric suspends production; Is it for annual maintenance or its recent EV fire incidents?

According to sources, Ola Electric temporarily halted production of its electric scooters at its Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu plant. Three sources with knowledge of this development claimed that inventory buildup was the primary cause for downing tools, despite the company’s claims that the facility was closed for yearly maintenance and the installation of new machinery.

Not including the numerous thousands of units that are prepared to be dispatched to consumers who have placed pre-orders for the scooter, Ola Electric has roughly 4,000 units of scooters piled up at the facility it refers to as the “Future Factory.”

A person with knowledge claims that Ola Electric’s daily output was anywhere between 100 and 600 units when the line was shut down on July 21.

At the ‘Future Factory’ plant in Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu’s Hosur district, Ola began trial production in October and regular production in December. The production has only been going strong for around eight months.

“Like other firms, we performed yearly maintenance at our factories.” This in no way constitutes a suspension of production. Clarifying that (information) is false as a result, an Ola representative answered an ET Prime question.

Regarding daily production or booking statistics, the corporation gave no details. Although it did not go into detail, it claimed that the production suspension was just temporary.

Due to complaints about the reliability and quality of the vehicles, Ola Electric, which at first received over 150,000 bookings with advance payments as a result of its strong pre-launch promotion, has seen a large number of cancellations.

From late December, the business began distributing its scooters. Within the first few months, a scooter fire event involving Ola led to considerable condemnation and a government investigation.

Under the PLI program, Ola Electric will produce battery cells locally.

With this, Ola Electric has been given the only award from the government under the Advanced Cell Chemistry PLI scheme for an Indian EV startup.

On July 28, the Indian electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Ola Electric signed a contract to produce advanced cells in India under the government’s production-linked incentive (PLI) program.

Ola Electric became the only Indian electric vehicle company to be selected by the government under its ambitious Rs 80,000 crore cell PLI project in March after receiving the maximum capacity of 20 GWh for its offer.

According to Bhavish Aggarwal, the CEO and founder of Ola, 90 per cent of the world’s cell manufacturing capacity is currently located in China. To stop this reliance on imports, it is essential to use locally produced cell technology.

The most important components of the EV value chain will be localized in India thanks to the ACC PLI program, which will help it become self-sufficient. Our plan at Ola to advance cell manufacturing and technology is actively moving forward, strengthening our position as a vertically integrated mobility firm in terms of goods, services, and technology.

Notably, Ola is investing in growing R&D to produce indigenous advanced cell technologies. Ola recently introduced NMC 2170, India’s first locally made lithium-ion cell.

The EV manufacturer has enlisted international suppliers from Germany, Korea, and Japan, among other centers, to start mass producing its cell from its forthcoming 50 GWh Gigafactory.

According to the company, Ola‘s upcoming Battery Innovation Center (BIC), which is slated to open in August, will act as “The backbone for core cell technology research and battery innovation out of India for the world,” according to a release.

The BIC will house cutting-edge labs and high-tech tools for battery invention in order to create localized and futuristic cell technology, it was further said. Additionally, the company is hiring 500 PhDs and engineers from across the globe in top cell R&D positions.

Ola had previously stated earlier this month that it would invest $500 million (about Rs 4,000 crore) to build a cell research and development facility in Bengaluru.

In accordance with the government’s production-linked incentive program, Ola Electric on Thursday announced that it has signed an agreement with the ministry of heavy industries for the local manufacture of advanced battery cells.

The ministry had declared in March of this year that the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) plan for Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) battery storage is open to Rajesh Exports, Ola Electric Mobility, and Hyundai Global Motors Company, Reliance New Energy.

The four winning bids received an allocation for a total of 50 GWh of battery capacity. Under India’s Rs 18,100 crore incentive package, these businesses would be given incentives to increase domestic battery cell production

By 2023, Ola Electric plans to start mass producing lithium-ion batteries, according to a statement.

According to Bhavish Aggarwal, CEO and founder of Ola, “The ACC PLI plan would be crucial in making India self-reliant and localizing the most important components of the electric vehicle value chain.”

Ola has previously stated that it would invest $500 million (about Rs 4,000 crore) this month to build a cell research and development facility in Bengaluru.

edited and proofread by nikita sharma