Ola Electric inks pact with heavy industries ministry for making advanced batter cells

Ola Electric on Thursday said it has signed an agreement with the ministry of heavy industries for local manufacturing of advanced battery cells under the government’s production linked incentive scheme.

In March this year, the ministry had announced that four companies — Rajesh Exports, Hyundai Global Motors Company, Ola Electric Mobility and Reliance New Energy — are eligible for receiving benefits under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) battery storage. The allotment was made for a total of 50 GWh of battery capacity to the four successful bidders. These firms would receive incentives under India’s Rs 18,100-crore incentive programme to boost local battery cell production.

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In a statement, Ola Electric said it will begin mass production for lithium-ion cells by 2023. “The ACC PLI scheme will be instrumental in making India self-reliant and localising the most critical aspects of the electric vehicle value chain,” Ola CEO and founder Bhavish Aggarwal said. Earlier this month, Ola had announced an investment of USD 500 million (about Rs 4,000 crore) to set up a cell research and development facility in Bengaluru.