Ola Electric Mobility: Aiming for the Production of 10 Million BEV Motorcycles in 2027

ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (commonly known as Ola), India's largest ride-hailing service provider, operates mainly through two companies; Ola Fleet Technologies, which provides ride-hailing services, and Ola Electric Mobility (Ola EM), which handles electric vehicle business. The group also includes Ola Foods, a food delivery business, Ola Financial Services, a payment and insurance business, and its own think tank, Ola Mobility Institute. Ola EM was established in 2017 to launch and expand ride-hailing services, utilizing BEVs. The company was financially backed by Tiger Global, Matrix India, Tata Sons, SoftBank, Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors, and Pawan Munjal, Chairman and CEO of Hero MotoCorp, among others. In December 2020, Ola officially announced a major project to produce 10 million BEV motorcycles annually, launching Ola Electric Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (Ola ET), a BEV motorcycle assembly and sales company in the following month. The MoU with the government of Tamil Nadu State, which will build the plant, calls for an investment of 23.54 billion INR. The first phase, which began operation in 2021, has an annual production capacity of 2 million units. By 2027, Ola aims to introduce a state-of-the-art automated line and expand its annual production capacity to 10 million units. The funds necessary for business expansion was acquired by raising 500 million USD from new investors such as Temasek and Plum Wood Investment in July 2021, and by conducting an initial public offering at the appropriate time in the future.

Ola Electric Mobility: Company Overview and History

Overview

・Ola Electric Mobility Pvt. Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (aka Ola), India's largest ride-hailing service provider. Ola Electric Mobility was established in 2017 to launch and expand dispatch services that utilize BEVs. Ola Electric Mobility established Ola Electric Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (Ola ET) in Bangalore, Karnataka State in January 2021 as a wholly- owned subsidiary to enter the electric motorcycle assembly and sales business. Ola ET is an unlisted private company with capital of 258.8 million IRN. ・SoftBank and Tiger Global, which are major shareholders of Ola itself, have invested in Ola Electric Mobility. To date, funding rounds included Series A funding from Tiger Global, Matrix India and Tata Sons. In Series B, SoftBank, Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors and Pawan Munjal (Chairman and CEO of Hero MotoCorp) invested a total of 307 million USD. As of January 2021, Ola Electric Mobility is expected to raise an additional 300 million USD in future funding. The money is planned to be used to build a sales and marketing system and to secure funds for investment in strengthening technology for the development of its own battery management system and software for BEVs.

BEV motorcycle business

・In December 2020, Ola Electric Mobility announced that it will build a BEV motorcycle factory in India, entering the BEV scooter production business.

・The company will build its own factory to manufacture BEV motorcycles. As for the product, Ola will use the developed product of Etergo, a startup for the development and production of BEV scooters based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, which Ola acquired in 2020. Etergo has not started mass production of its BEV scooter. In addition to selling products to the general public, the company also operates a ride-hailing service.

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