Ola Electric Signs PLI Agreement With Govt For Manufacturing Of EV Battery Cells In India

Ola electric has signed the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) agreement with the government for manufacturing of Advanced Chemistry Cells (ACCs) in India.

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".

The development comes as Ola electric had earlier this month unveiled its first-ever indigenously made Lithium-ion (Li-ion) cell.

The state-of-the-art High Nickel Cylindrical Ola Cell uses NMC on the cathode side; and graphite and silicon on the anode side, ET reported.

The cell is likely to reduce the company's dependency on imports for Li-ion batteries.

Ola Electric will reportedly begin the mass production of its cell from its upcoming Gigafactory by 2023.

Further, the company has also announced an investment of $500 million for setting up its state-of-the-art Battery Innovation Center (BIC) in Bengaluru.

BIC will be one of the world’s largest and most advanced cell R&D facilities with more than 165 ”unique and cutting-edge” lab equipment to cover all aspects of cell related research and development, the electric vehicles company said.

“Ola’s BIC will host Proto lines that can produce all form factors Cylindrical, Pouch, Coin, Prismatic cells, it said. The center will have capabilities to develop complete packages of battery pack design, fabrication and testing under one roof, the company said in a statement.

“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”, it said.

The BIC will recruit top global talent including 500 PhDs and engineers who will be supported by an additional 1000 researchers in India and multiple other global centres, the company said.