Ola to manufacture a scooter every two seconds in TN by 2022

Virendra Pandit

Mumbai: India’s leading cab aggregator Ola, which is investing Rs.2,400 crore to set up the world’s largest two-wheeler manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu, plans to start rolling out a scooter every two seconds from next year.

The company has already commenced construction of the two-wheeler mega-factory on a 500-acre site in the Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu. Its mega-block structure itself is spread over 43 acres.

This ‘Ola FutureFactory’ will become operational by 2022.

It plans to launch the first in its range of electric scooters in the coming months. The scooter will have a “removable battery, high performance, and range” and has already won awards for its design, the company stated.

The mega-factory will have an initial capacity of manufacturing two million units a year in the first phase and will serve as the company’s global manufacturing hub for its range of electric-powered scooters and two-wheelers across India and international markets, including Europe, the UK, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Australia, and New Zealand.

At full capacity, the factory will roll out one scooter every two seconds resulting in the annual production of 10 million vehicles. This will be 20 percent of the current global two-wheeler capacity, media reports said.

The company would also make efforts to ensure the conservation of the green belt in the area by preserving and transplanting the trees on site. Ola plans to have a large forest area on the premises and reuse the excavated soil and rocks within the factory.

Ola had inked a Rs 2,400-crore MoU with the Tamil Nadu government in December 2020. The land acquisition was completed within a month, in January 2021.

The firm said it plans to operationalize the factory in the next few months and roughly 10 million man-hours will be utilized to complete the project. The company’s first phase will be operational “in the coming months”.

It is expected to generate nearly 10,000 jobs. “The factory will incorporate Industry 4.0 principles, and will be powered by Ola’s own proprietary AI Engine and tech stack that will be deeply integrated into all its systems,” Ola said.

The factory also plans to be India’s most automated plant, with about 5,000 robots and automated guided vehicles in use once it is operational to its full capacity.

“The company has already brought on board global partners and suppliers as it works towards getting its factory, billed to be the world’s largest scooter factory, operational in the coming months,” the company added.