Ola Partners With Siemens To Build Artificial Intelligence-Powered EV Manufacturing Facility In Tamil Nadu

Indian ridesharing company Ola has joined hands with German multinational conglomerate Siemens to build India’s most advanced electric vehicle manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu, reports LiveMint.

In December 2020, Ola had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the government in Tamil Nadu to set up, what it calls, the biggest electric scooter manufacturing plant in the world.

The company will invest ₹2,400 crore ($320 million) to establish the production facility. The company said that the new facility will create 10,000 jobs. The world’s largest scooter manufacturing facility, which will initially have an annual capacity of two million units.

Built on Industry 4.0 principles such as large-scale machine-to-machine communication (M2M) and the internet of things (IoT), this manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu will be the most advanced in the country.

"The factory will be artificial intelligence-powered with Ola’s proprietary AI engine and tech stack deeply integrated into every aspect of the manufacturing process, continuously self-learning and optimizing every aspect of the manufacturing process," the company said.

"These advanced technology systems will seamlessly blend with Ola’s workforce to provide the perfect synergy of humans and machines working in tandem to build the most efficient production system and deliver the highest quality products for Ola’s customers," the company added.

"This will be our global hub and will set a benchmark in quality, scale and efficiency, demonstrating India’s capability to build world class cutting edge products. We look forward to bringing this factory online in the coming months and putting our products in the hands of customers," Bhavish Aggarwal, chairman and group CEO, Ola, said.

Ola expects the plant in Tamil Nadu to emerge as a major hub for the manufacturing of EVs. Units manufactured here will also be shipped to European, Asian and Latin American markets.

The factory will produce Ola’s upcoming range of two wheeler products starting with Ola’s electric scooter.

Ola plans to roll out its scooters in India, Australia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, among other places, by the first quarter of 2021.