Ola Electric begins working on its cell gigafactory amid buzz of Tesla setting up manufacturing plant in India

Ola Electric, an electric vehicle maker, said on Friday it has started working on its first cell gigafactory in India. Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal tweeted that the company has started working on its cell gigafactory. Aggarwal claimed that this factory will be "India’s biggest and amongst the worlds biggest cell factories". The tweet also contained a video and images of workers working on the construction of the plant. This comes at a time when Elon Musk’s Tesla is in talks with the Indian government regarding setting up its own manufacturing plant in the country.

Work started and moving along at full speed on our cell gigafactory!

It will be India’s biggest and amongst the worlds biggest cell factories. And the centrepiece for #endICEage! pic.twitter.com/Nr6k5rMT6O

— Bhavish Aggarwal (@bhash) May 26, 2023

Last year, Ola CEO had announced that the firm plans to launch its own lithium-ion cell by the end of 2023. These lithium-ion cell are used in the batteries of electric vehicles. As of now, Indian EV manufacturers rely on China, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea for lithium-ion battery cells. This factory’s initial capacity is expected to be 5 gigawatts.  

“We will be India's first and largest lithium cell manufacturers. We had been building the technology for the last two years... we have already built our own tech without any dependence on other countries or players," said Aggarwal.

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This Ola gigafactory is located in Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu. Aggrawal had stated, “We are putting up a large Gigafactory in Krishnagiri for the lithium-ion cell...we will first utilise it to our bikes and think of monetising the same and make it available for the market.”

Talking about Ola Electric’s 2023 agenda, Bhavish Aggrawal said that the company aims to focus on manufacturing motorbikes, lithium-oin cells and entering the commercial vehicle space. “Our investment focus for 2023 will be getting into small and light-weight commercial vehicles, motorbikes and launch other products as well along with lithium-ion cells," he said.

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