'Absolute Rubbish, We Will Never Merge': Bhavish Aggarwal On Reports Of Ola-Uber Merger Talks

Ola founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal on Friday (29 July) slammed media reports claiming the Bengaluru-based ride hailing platform is in talks with Uber for a possible merger.

Aggarwal asserted that Ola is "very profitable and growing well", and will "never merge".

"Absolute rubbish," the Ola CEO said in a tweet, in response to an Economic Times report on "merger talks" between Ola and Uber.

"We’re very profitable and growing well. If some other companies want to exit their business from India they are welcome to! We will never merge," he said.

The development comes as Ola Electric signed an agreement with the Ministry of Heavy Industries on Thursday (28 July) for indigenous manufacturing of advance chemistry cells in India under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme.

The company, that manufactures S1 and S1 Pro electric scooters, is the only Indian EV maker selected by the government under the Rs 18,100 crore PLI scheme to boost local production of ACC battery storage.

The agreement was signed between the Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI) and officials of the company on Thursday (28 July).

"Signed our PLI agreement with MHI for indigenous cell manufacturing. India will soon be self reliant on cell technology as we build tech and manufacture locally. We’re now an even more vertically integrated mobility company across products, services and now core technologies," Ola founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal said in a tweet.

“Today, 90 per cent of global capacity for cell manufacturing is in China. To reverse this import dependency, locally manufactured cell technology is crucial,” Aggarwal said, reports Economic Times.

“The advanced chemistry cell PLI scheme will be instrumental in making India self-reliant and localising the most critical aspects of the electric vehicle (EV) value chain," he added.

Aggarwal further said, "At Ola, our roadmap to develop cell technology and manufacturing is vigorously progressing; making us a stronger vertically integrated mobility company across - products, mobility services and tech".