1 / 11Bhavish Aggarwal, the CEO of Ola Electric, India's top e-2 wheeler maker, has set himself an ambitious target — to make all two-wheelers in India electric by 2025. Speaking to CNBC-TV18’s Shereen Bhan, the Ola founder also said that the industry would not require subsidies beyond a certain point. Here’s a look at the top 10 quotes from Aggarwal during the exclusive chat. (Image: Reuters)
2 / 11Aggarwal spoke about his vision of making all two-wheelers in India electric by the end of 2025. He admitted that this goal was a little aggressive but stated that it was something his company was striving for. “By the end of 2025, we can make all two-wheelers in India electric…It is a little aggressive. But that's what we are striving for. And to make that happen, we need to build the right products for India at the right cost structures and to bring the supply chains to India,” Agarwal said.
3 / 11According to Aggarwal, the heart of the electric vehicle (EV) revolution lies in the development of battery cells and no other Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) in India is building its own cell technology, which makes Ola's efforts all the more impressive. “Our cell factory is under construction; it will be ready by this year and will be the largest cell factory in India. The envisioned scale is 100 gWh. Just to put that into perspective, 100 gWh is the scale of the world's largest cell factory today, the LG cell factory in Poland. Total World production today is about 1,500 gWh. It will be a fairly large-scale plant,” he stated.
4 / 11Aggarwal said his plan is to build scooters, motorbikes, cars, and the fundamental cell platform in India. He said his ultimate goal is to make India a global EV hub. “The sequence is scooter, motorbike and then car, and in parallel to all of this is cell. Step one was the scooter, which is what we started off with two years ago. The supply side will be the challenge and not the demand side. So that was step one for me in this grand vision of ending the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) age in the scooter segment,” he said.
5 / 11Aggarwal revealed that Ola is already well on its way to developing its own line of motorbikes. “In the scooter segment, step one, #EndICEAge should be a two-year phenomenon,” he said, referring to Ola's goal of phasing out fossil fuel-powered vehicles. “Next step is motorbikes. We are already midway through our motorbike engineering and product development. You will see announcements later this year,” he added.
6 / 11Aggarwal stated that Ola is "very serious" about developing its own line of cars, with plans to bring them to market as early as 2025. "This is still early, but we are very serious about it," Agarwal said. "By early 2025 or so, we'll bring our car."
7 / 11Aggarwal believes that the industry can achieve self-sustainability and reduce its dependence on subsidies. "We feel confident that we can do this at Ola, and the industry can survive without subsidies as well. Obviously, the subsidies should not go away completely, but could taper gradually."
8 / 11At Ola, Aggarwal said, they have been working towards a non-subsidy regime since early last year. "We started working towards making sure our cost structure was ready for a non-subsidy regime. And so today, we are almost there. Today I am confident and not dependent on government incentives or subsidies," he said.
9 / 11Ola Cabs had plans of going public in the first half of 2022, but it however got postponed. Explaining why the IPO got delayed, Aggarwal said, “I was ready, but then this whole Russia-Ukraine thing happened. I don't need to raise money in an IPO. My businesses are throwing up cash. Hence I decided to delay it by at least a year or by the time the market settles down. My investors are also very comfortable as they know that the business is doing well.”
10 / 11In 2022, the Ola Group was rocked by a series of top-level exits and was struggling to retain talent. However, according to Aggarwal, Ola has always had a culture of impact, and it is not a 9-5 company. He said that as the company has grown, some employees may have found the culture to be different from what they have experienced before and admitted that the company has learned from this and has realised what kind of people work best for them. “Today, we have the best talent in the world for each of our businesses. If you look at any of my businesses, be it EV, lithium, and ride-hailing, we have the best talent that I can get in India or anywhere else in the world,” Aggarwal said.
11 / 11In March Ola Electric announced a massive recall for its S1 scooters and offered a free upgrade to the new front fork design. Addressing the concerns about the voluntary recall, Aggarwal clarified that the issue was not a recall but a voluntary service campaign. “Our technical aspect is that the front fork is made of aluminium. It is stronger than a typical steel front fork. But when the steel front fork gets into an accident, it bends due to the bending property of steel. When aluminium gets into the same accident and if the force is at the same level, it will snap. That's the nature of aluminium. It is a material of the future. Tesla is using it in its car engineering. Steel is heavier than aluminium, we will see more aluminium being used in EVs. So in that sense, our vehicle is technically more advanced,” he explained.
