Ola Electric Scooter Gears Up For An Early-2021 Launch

The Ola AppScooter is expected to be priced around Rs 95,000

The e-scooter will be manufactured in the world’s largest e-scooter plant in Tamil Nadu. Motor likely to be sourced from Bosch. Initial batches to be imported from the Netherlands. The factory will create 10,000 jobs.

After acquiring the Dutch startup, Etergo EV, India’s popular online cab-hailing service, Ola, is gearing up to launch its first e-scooter in India as early as February 2021. The company is also in the process of setting up a manufacturing unit in the country, which it claims will be the world's largest e-scooter manufacturing plant. Ola has already signed an MoU with the Tamil Nadu government for an investment of Rs 2,400 crore. The factory will create 10,000 jobs with a capacity to manufacture 20 lakh units annually.

Etergo AppScooter gained instant popularity thanks to its unique design and engineering. The most impressive thing has to be its battery pack which gives the scooter a claimed range of 240km. It gets three battery modules, each of 1.6kWh, offering a range of 80km. With the 'banana battery' in place, the scooter gets an impressive 50-litre underseat storage. The electric motor is capable of producing a peak output of 8PS and 135Nm.

The scooter gets a twin LED headlamp surrounded by DRL, 7-inch touchscreen as the console as well as a single telescopic fork at the front and horizontally mounted rear monoshock.

While the brand is keen on bringing the swappable battery tech to India, given the current infrastructure, we wouldn’t be surprised if it offers conventional wall chargers initially.

Ola is reportedly planning to import the initial batches from the Netherlands until the manufacturing unit is set up in India. The company has roped in Jose Pinheiro, former vice president of manufacturing at General Motors, for the manufacturing unit. Ola is aiming for as much localisation as possible and is reportedly in talks with Bosch and Samsung to supply components. The scooters manufactured in India will be exported to Europe, Latin America, and other foreign markets.

The AppScooter is likely to be priced more than the Ather 450 initially but with heavy localisation, the price could drop to Rs 95,000.