Ola Will Invest $500 Mn In Battery Innovation Centre In Bengaluru

E-Mobility is catching the fancy of the companies across Asia Pacific region, thereby attracting ever higher investments. Following the trend, and adding its own ‘think big’ motto to it, Ola Electric recently announced an investment worth $500 million for setting up its futuristic Battery Innovation Centre (BIC) in the city of Bengaluru. A statement released by the company revealed that BIC is set to be among the world’s largest and state-of-the-art cell R&D facilities that will boast of over 165 “unique and cutting-edge” lab equipment.

Ola Electric’s Founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal has been quoted as saying, “Electric mobility is a high growth sector which is R&D intensive. Ola’s Battery Innovation Centre in Bengaluru will be the cornerstone for core cell tech development and battery innovation out of India for the world. BIC will house advanced labs and high-tech equipment for battery innovation and Ola recently unveiled its first Li-ion cell, NMC 2170. Will power India’s journey towards becoming a global EV hub,”.

The statement released by the company reads, “Ola’s BIC will host Proto lines that can produce all form factors Cylindrical, Pouch, Coin, Prismatic cells. The centre will have capabilities to develop complete packages of battery pack design, fabrication and testing under one roof. BIC will also be equipped with in-house production capability of mg to kg scale of anode and cathode material, integrated facility for Hand in Hand Nanoscale analysis and Molecular Dynamics simulation and an in-house crystal structure analysis to develop new battery materials.”

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The ambitious drive will serve to recruit the best and brightest minds of the world including 500 PhDs and engineers. 1000 researchers from the country and multiple other global centres will be additionally recruited, the company said. A few days ago, Ola forayed into manufacturing Li-ion cell, NMC 2170. Built in-house, Ola will start the mass production of its cell from its upcoming Gigafactory by next year. The government had recently awarded 20GWh capacity to Ola under the ACC PLI scheme towards developing advanced cells. The company is establishing a facility for cell manufacturing. It will boast of an initial capacity of up to 20 GWh.