India’s EV battle heats up: Ola Electric raises $200 mln

Ola Electric on Thursday said that it has raised over $200 million in a funding round led by Falcon Edge, Softbank and others. The latest funding round valued the electric vehicles (EV) manufacturer at $3 billion.

The company said that the funding will accelerate the development of other vehicle platforms including electric motorbike, mass-market scooter and its electric car.

“We’re proud to lead the EV revolution from India to the world. India has the talent and the capability to build technologies of the future for the industries of the future for the entire world,” Speaking on the occasion, Bhavish Aggarwal, chairman and group CEO, Ola, said in a statement, adding that “Together we will bring mobility to a billion and sustainability to the future.”

Backed by investors such as Tiger Global, Matrix Partners, SoftBank and others, Ola Electric was carved out of Bengaluru-based ride-hailing company Ola in 2017 and it became a unicorn two years later.

In mid-August, Ola launched its much-awaited e-scooter in two variants—the S1 and the S1 Pro. Ola S1, with a range of 121 km on a single charge is priced at ₹99,999 while Ola S1 Pro costs ₹1,29,999 and is capable of giving a 181 km range. They can both cover 0-40 km/h in around three seconds and come in 10 colour variants.

The scooter is based on the design of Etergo, a Dutch EV company Ola Electric acquired last year. Except for the design, everything else, such as batteries, motors, motor controllers, and the software to power the e-scooters have been reengineered.

The company said that it has set a benchmark in two-wheeler sales by selling over $150 million worth of scooters in its first purchase window.

To keep up with its production demand, Ola set up its ₹2,400-crore mega factory in Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu. At its full capacity of 10 million units by the next two years, Ola’s ‘Future Factory’ will roll out one electric scooter every two seconds. Once completed, the 500-acre factory—the world’s largest two-wheeler plant—will account for 15% of the world’s two-wheeler production.