Ola Electric on Thursday revealed plans to set up the world’s largest electric two-wheeler charging network. SoftBank-backed Ola Electric plans to provide charging solutions to all its electric two-wheeler customers. It unveiled the Ola Hypercharger Network, the charging network for its upcoming two-wheeler products starting with the Ola Scooter to be launched in the coming months.
The Ola Hypercharger Network will be the widest and densest electric two-wheeler charging network in the world, with more than 100,000 charging points across 400 cities. In the first year alone, Ola is setting up over 5,000 charging points across 100 cities in India, more than double the existing charging infrastructure in the country.
“Electric is the future of mobility and we are reimagining the entire user experience of owning an electric vehicle. Our plans to build a comprehensive charging network is a key piece of this,” said Bhavish Aggarwal, chairman and group CEO. “By creating the world’s largest and densest 2-wheeler charging network, we will dramatically accelerate the customer adoption of electric vehicles and rapidly move the industry to electric.”
In India, Ola is now in direct competition with electric two-wheeler makers, such as Ather Energy, Hero Electric, and TVS Motor Company.
However, Aggarwal said the charging network won’t be available to other electric vehicle players and only the customers of Ola Electric.
Ola will offer the most comprehensive set of charging options to its electric vehicle customers. This would be done through a combination of widely deployed high-speed Ola Hyperchargers and the home-charger that will come bundled with the Ola Scooter.
Ola Hypercharger will also be the fastest two-wheeler charging network. The Ola Scooter can be charged 50 per cent in just 18 minutes for a 75 km range, providing superior range confidence. Ola Hyperchargers will be widely deployed across cities and will be found in city centres and dense business districts as stand-alone towers as well as in popular locations such as malls, IT parks, office complexes and cafes, ensuring that Ola Electric customers always have a Hypercharger nearby.
The Ola Hypercharger network, being built by Ola along with partners, will be complemented by the home charger that will be bundled with the Ola Scooter. The home charger will require no installation and will provide Ola customers with the convenience of charging at home by simply plugging into a regular wall socket for overnight charging.
Ola Hypercharger network, together with the home-charger and Ola Scooter’s industry-leading range, will ensure that customers have complete range confidence when opting for Ola’s electric vehicles.
The company said Ola Hypercharger network will offer an effortless and seamless charging experience to Ola customers. They have to simply arrive at a charging location and plug their scooter into the charging point. Customers can easily monitor the charging progress in real-time on the Ola Electric app and the same app can be used to seamlessly pay for the charging as well.
The much-anticipated and soon-to-be-launched Ola Scooter is a tech-driven electric vehicle with industry-leading range and speed. It will be manufactured at the Ola Futurefactory which is being built at record speed in Tamil Nadu, India, with its first phase to be ready this summer. The facility is being built with an investment of Rs 2400 crore on 500 acres of land.
The company said the electric two-wheeler will be priced aggressively to make it accessible to all and will help accelerate India’s transition to sustainable, clean and electric mobility.
The Ola Scooter has already won several prestigious awards including the IHS Markit Innovation award at CES and the German Design Award. The firm said it has industry-first smart features that reimagine the entire scooter experience for customers in India and around the world. The scooter has a sophisticated design and a unique banana-shaped battery that is easy to remove and charge anywhere.
In July 2019 Ola Electric Mobility (Ola Electric), the ride-hailing firm’s electric vehicle arm raised $250 million from Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank. It was just a two-year-old firm at that time. The investment made the fledgeling venture a “unicorn”, or a start-up valued at more than $1 billion.
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