Electric vehicle companies are quickly veering to the view that solving battery tech issues is at the core of cracking the market puzzle. No wonder, many of them are making huge investments in battery tech. Ola Electric is no different. The company that makes electric scooters S1 and S1 Pro has invested in an Israeli technology company StoreDot that specialises in batteries with extreme fast charging (XFC) technology.
And Ola made it clear that the investment in StoreDot is the first of several global strategic investments planned by it to ramp up its core R&D in advanced cell chemistry & manufacturing as well as other battery technologies and new energy systems.
Ola Electric seems to have arrived at the right partner. For, StoreDot is known for its extreme fast charging '5-Minute charge' EV battery technology and plans mass production in a couple of years and is working on a '2-Minute charge' technology to be commercialised in the next 10 years. Its silicon-dominant anode technology is a significant improvement over the conventional lithium-ion batteries, and reduces EV charging times from hours to just 5 minutes.
Ola to bring StoreDot's fast-charging tech to India
Thanks to the investment in StoreDot, Ola Electric will have access to the former's state-of-the-art XFC battery technology that charges a battery from 0 to 100% in just 5 minutes. Ola will also likely manufacture batteries integrating StoreDot's fast charge technology in India.
Ola, which has already submitted a bid under the Government's PLI scheme for advanced chemistry cell battery storage, plans to set up a gigafactory near its FutureFactory for manufacturing cells here.
Bhavish Aggarwal, Founder and CEO, Ola, said: "The future of EVs lies in better, faster and high energy density batteries, capable of rapid charging and delivering higher range. We are increasing our investments in core cell and battery technologies and ramping up our in-house capabilities and global talent hiring, as well as partnering with global companies doing cutting edge work in this field. Our partnership with StoreDot, a pioneer of extreme fast charging battery technologies, is of strategic importance and a first of many."
Doron Myersdorf, StoreDot CEO, said, "Ola Electric's plans to bring StoreDot's extreme fast charging battery technology to India and manufacture for its range of EVs will offer Indian consumers vastly superior range and charging speed performance. We are also offering our customers a clear, hype-free technology roadmap that will extend far into the future of delivering 100 miles of range in just a 2-minute charge, within a decade."
This is indeed a quick and smart move from Ola, which hopefully will help it to finetune its vehicles for better battery technology.
