Ola Electric, the electric mobility arm of ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd, on Monday said it will invest $500 million to build a battery research and development (R&D) centre in Bengaluru.
The company plans to kickstart operations at the unit by next month and said it will hire more than 500 engineers and PhD holders.
The Battery Innovation Centre will be spread across half a million square feet and will be one of the world's largest and most advanced cell R&D facilities, said Ola Electric in a statement.
Spread across half a million square feet, the Battery Innovation Centre will have the capabilities to develop complete packages of battery pack design, fabrication and testing under one roof.
The centre will also be equipped with labs with high-tech research equipment including x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy machines (XPS), a double planetary mixer, electrode fabrication unit, an automated assembly line for manufacturing cylindrical and pouch cells among others, the statement said. The labs will also come with the latest generation 3 CT scan equipment for non-destructive testing (NDT) for cell and pack imaging, it added.
Bhavish Aggarwal, founder and chief executive, Ola Electric, noted that electric mobility is R&D intensive while being a high growth sector.
"Ola’s Battery Innovation Center in Bengaluru will be the cornerstone for core cell tech development and battery innovation out of India for the world," he added.
Last week, Ola Electric unveiled India's first indigenously developed lithium-ion cell. The company was recently allocated 20 GWh capacity under the ACC PLI scheme by the government for developing advanced cells in the country, and is setting up a cell manufacturing facility with an initial capacity of upto 20 GWh, localizing the most critical part of the EV value chain.
Ola Electric launched its first electric vehicle in August last year but it has since received some negative press, particularly following a video circulating across social media showing an Ola Electric scooter catching fire in March. The company has been maintaining that vehicle safety has been paramount at Ola.
Earlier in January, Ola Electric raised $200 million in a funding round from Tekne Private Ventures, Alpine Opportunity Fund, Edelweiss and others at a valuation of $5 billion. This fundraise came just months after Ola Electric snagged $200 million in a round led by Falcon Edge, SoftBank and others at a valuation of $3 billion in September last year.
Legacy automobile firms such as Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) have also attracted private equity funding to give a boost to their electric vehicle strategy.
Just earlier this month, UK’s development finance institution British International Investment (BII) said it will invest Rs 1,925 crore in M&M's electric mobility arm.
