Ola to invest Rs 7,614 cr in TN to make electric cars, lithium-ion cells

In a further push to Ola Electric Mobility's plan to launch four-wheeler Electric Vehicles (EVs) by 2024, the SoftBank-backed company has signed a memorandum of understanding with the government of Tamil Nadu to set up a four-wheeler EV manufacturing plant and a 20 giga watt battery manufacturing unit in Krishnagiri District.

This may see Ola investing around Rs 7,614 crore, creating 3,111 jobs and converting its facility into the world’s largest EV hub with two-wheeler, car and lithium cell giga factories. The fresh investment will be part of the expansion plans by the company at its unit in Pochampalli. The move may also uplift Hosur-Krishnagiri-Dharmapuri (HKD) region’s status as a hub for electric vehicles and ancillary units. Other than Ola, Ather and TVS Motor are also manufacturing their EVs from their units near Hosur.

“Ola will set up the world's largest EV hub with integrated two-wheeler, car and lithium cell gigafactories in Tamil Nadu. Signed an MoU with Tamil Nadu today,” said Ola Founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal in a Twitter post. The deal was signed between Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin and Aggarwal. The company is planning to come out with a car with a range of around 500km on a single charge.

On Saturday, Ola Electric Mobility signed the deal through its subsidiary companies Ola Cell Technologies (OCT) and Ola Electric Technologies (OET).  Out of the total investment, around Rs 5,114 crore will go into the cell manufacturing plant and the remaining Rs 2,500 crore will go into the four-wheeler manufacturing unit. The plan is to set up a unit to produce 140,000 electric four-wheelers per annum. The company had announced that it was planning to come out with cars by 2024. Last year, Aggarwal had indicated that the price of the first car was likely to be less than $50,000.

The company’s current facility in Hosur is considered to be one of the world’s largest electric two-wheeler manufacturing units and has seen investments of more than Rs 2,400 crore. The current announcement comes days after Tamil Nadu came out with a new EV policy. “Already Tamil Nadu is an auto hub. From that we are progressing to EV capital of the country through our latest EV policy. Our policy addresses the demands of original equipment manufacturers, component manufacturers, charging infrastructure, in addition to demand incentives to meet the customer requirements,” said V Vishnu, managing director and CEO at Guidance Tamil Nadu.

The sops under the Tamil Nadu Electric Vehicles Policy 2023 for manufacturers include 100 per cent reimbursement of state goods and services tax (SGST), investment or turnover-based subsidy and advanced chemistry cell subsidy. The state will provide a 100 per cent exemption on electricity tax for five years on power purchased from the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation, exemption on stamp duty and also subsidy on cost of land among others.  During the last five years, the state has seen projects with employment potential of 48,000 jobs in the EV value chain.