Ola prices e-scooter at `1 lakh
Ola Electric Mobility Pvt Ltd priced its electric scooter at Rs 99,999 ($1,348) in an attempt to crack the affordability barrier for electric twowheelers in value-conscious India. The SoftBank Group Corpand Tiger Global Management-backed electric vehicle unicorn unveiled the price of the Ola S1 during an official launch timed to coincide with Independence Day on Sunday. The basic version of the electric scooter will have a range of 121 km (75 miles) on a complete charge.
The final price will vary according to subsidies offered by each state government, the company said. Deliveries will commence in October in over 1,000 cities, and exports to countries in Asia, Latin America and Europe will begin in the coming months. "By 2025, all twowheelers sold in India should be electric, that's my mission," said Bhavish Aggarwal, chairman and group chief executive officer of Ola Group. The plan is to begin an initial production run of one million scooters in coming months, which will be ramped up as demand builds, he said.
"We want 50 per cent of all electric two-wheelers produced for the world to be made in India," Aggarwal said at a media conference ahead of the public unveiling of the scooter. "The ambition is to make India a global EV leader." Aggarwal's global e-vehicle ambitions hinge on the make-or-break pricing for the bike. Affordability could help achieve scale in the home market where petrol-fuelled scooters cost around $1,000. Low running costs and inexpensive maintenance could help it take traditional two-wheeler makers head on.
When the scooter opened for pre-bookings a few weeks ago, the company received over 100,000 orders within 24 hours. It charged a booking charge of Rs 499, and has lined up nine banks to facilitate purchases on monthly payments of Rs 2,999. India is the world's largest two-wheeler market.
India's electric vehicle market could be worth nearly $206 billion in a decade with over 100 million units sold-—about 200 times the current number, according to CEEW Centre for Energy Finance. Ola's founder wagers that India’s ambitious e-vehicle goals make it a market ripe for disruption.
Ola's competitors include Hero MotoCorpbacked Ather Energy Pvt Ltd, whose electric scooter has been in the market for a couple of years.
Ola is building a $330 million plant in India that will have a production capacity of 10 million vehicles annually, or 15 per cent of the world's escooters by the end of 2022. The 2 million square feet factory will have the capacity to roll out one scooter every two seconds. For now, only one of its 10 lines is operational. Aggarwal's goal is to design and build an array of vehicles including electric cars. Aggarwal said work on the electric car has already started.