When it comes to giving a push to the adoption of electric vehicles in the country, we need a major brand to introduce affordable battery-powered two-wheelers. While Ather and Bajaj are doing their bit, their electric scooters are priced at a premium.
Ola Group which last year announced its first electric scooter facility in Tamil Nadu that could change the market dynamics. Its CEO Bhavish Aggarwal has now revealed that phase 1 of the Rs 2,400-crore “Futurefactory” is now almost complete and the company is planning to start rolling out scooters from it, soon.
According to Aggarwal, this is the world’s largest two-wheeler factory and has taken just 4 months to get ready. He said, “In just 4 months, this place has transformed from acres of empty rock land to the world’s largest 2W factory. The Ola Futurefactory phase 1 is nearing completion! The scooters are coming soon.”
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Once completed this factory is expected to create over 10,000 jobs and will have a production capacity of over 2 million scooters every year. Just a few days back, Aggarwal teased an image of the upcoming scooter and asked his Twitter follower base about their preferred colour options. He also confirmed that the black colour has already been finalized.
Time to order some paint! What color would you like on the Ola Scooter? Already got you covered for Black! What else? @OlaElectric pic.twitter.com/NXMftKJrrqJune 24, 2021
The teaser image shared by him reveals the front design of the scooter and shows that the new electric scooter will be available in a dual-tone finish and will have a unique twin headlamp cluster surrounded by LED daytime running lamps.
The design, however, is similar to the AppScooter from Etergo BV, the company Ola acquired back in May last year. Now these India-made scooters will cater to the domestic market and are also expected to be made available in markets like Europe, UK, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Australia, and New Zealand by the end of the year.
Ecosystem and affordable pricing
Apart from the scooter itself, the company is looking to set up a Hypercharger network and is promising the installation of 100,000 charging stations in 400 cities and towns across the country. Out of these, the company plans to install 5000 charging points within this year.
The scooter is expected to come with a range of 150 Kms when fully charged and the fast charger is expected to top up from 0 to 50% in just 18 minutes offering a range of 75 Kms. While the scooter will come with a home charger, Ola setting up the Hypercharger Network will help the company once it launches electric four-wheelers as well.
Ola is yet to announce the retail price of this scooter; however, it is said to be one of the “most affordable and stylish” electric scooters in the country. With the new FAME II electric vehicle policy in place, the incentive on Electric Scooters has been increased to Rs. 15,000 per kWh from an earlier Rs 10,000 per kWh.
At an expected price point of Sub-Rs. 100,000, the Ola scooters will take on the competition like the Ather 450X, Bajaj Chetak and TVS iQube etc. However, the massive production capacity and plans will offer Ola an upper hand in both supply and competitive pricing.
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