Ola Reveals Made-in-India Li-ion Battery

This locally made Lithium-ion battery is slated to go into production from 2023

Bhavish Aggarwal, CEO of Ola Electric has shared an image of a Li-ion battery cell that he claims is the company’s first indigenously developed battery. Ola aims to begin mass producing this NMC 21700 cell at its Gigafactory by 2023. 

Aggarwal also revealed that there is more to come with regard to the company’s cell technology roadmap. This implies that from 2023, Ola will be assembling its batteries with its own cells, which might bring down overall battery cost. 

This Ola cell uses nickel, manganese and cobalt (NMC) on the cathode side; and graphite and silicon on the anode side. This specific chemistry and materials used enables the cell to pack more energy in a given space and also improves the overall lifecycle. 

Ola claims that this cell has been developed keeping in mind the Indian weather conditions. If this new cell can pack more charge as Ola claims, it would result in significant reduction in cost per km for owners. The company has not revealed any technical specifications about this new battery cell though. While it is not known if this is an 18,650 cell or a 21,700 cell, it should most likely be a 21,700 cell. To provide some context, 21mm is the diameter of the battery and 700mm is the height of the battery.

Currently, Ola Electric sources battery cells from South Korea-based LG Chem for its electric scooters. Battery cells are the most expensive component in an EV, and manufacturing these can cut costs by around 30 per cent. Developing the battery cells in-house was on Ola Electric’s roadmap from the get-go. However, as the S1 Pro is based on the Etergo Scooter, it retained the outsourced battery cells. 

In a similar development, Ola Electric recently launched the MoveOS 2.0 OTA update for the S1 Pro scooter. One of the major highlights of this update was the new ‘Eco’ riding mode, in which Ola claims the EV delivers a range of 164km. Now two customers have claimed to have clocked over 300km on a single charge. 

An Ola S1 Pro owner named Jigar Bharda has clocked a range of 303 km on a single charge which is a massive feat. An image shared by the owner reveals a distance of 303km with 23 kph average speed, indicating a ride time of over 13 hours. At the end, the scooter’s battery had 6 per cent charge remaining with only a kilometer range left as indicated by the instrument console.

Another Ola S1 Pro owner has also claimed to have achieved 300km range on a single charge. Satyendra Yadav shared a photo on Twitter that showed a ride distance of 300km with 5 per cent battery remaining. He rode at an average speed of 20 kmph and managed top speed of 38 kmph.

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We have seen Ola Electric awarding free S1 Pro electric scooters to owners who have crossed the 200km mark. It now remains to see what Bhavish Aggarwal will have in store for customers who managed exceeding 300 km on a single charge on their Ola S1 Pros.