Ola Electric Journey Towards Solid-State Batteries

Ola Electric is working on building solid-state batteries, expecting its vehicles to use these batteries by next year, Reuters reported, quoting Bhavish Aggarwal, the founder and chairman of Ola Electric.

The report read that Ola’s S1 electric scooter is among India’s most-sold scooters. Aggarwal expects commercial production to begin at its cell ‘gigafactory’ in Tamil Nadu by early next year. The factory was selected for the government’s battery manufacturing incentive scheme.

Why is Ola Electric Working to Build Solid-State Batteries?

Solid-state batteries offer improved safety, a longer lifespan, and faster charging compared to conventional lithium-ion batteries, which use flammable liquid electrolytes, which can pose a safety hazard, especially in the case of accidents.

However, mass adoption of solid-state batteries is difficult due to raw material availability, complicated manufacturing processes, and high costs.

The world’s largest automaker, Toyota Motor of Japan, is a big proponent of solid-state batteries and plans to launch them globally in the next few years.

How Does Ola Plan to Build Solid-State Batteries?

Ola does not commercially produce its cells but sources them from South Korea’s LG Energy Solution and China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology. However, Ola Electric has begun making the more efficient 4680 battery cells for testing purposes.

These cells are known to be more efficient than their widely used 2170 counterparts, but many, including Tesla, have struggled to scale up production.

How is the Government Supporting Electric Vehicles?

Aggarwal said Ola’s 4680 cells have received a key domestic certification. The company will have an initial capacity to produce about 1.5 gigawatt hours (GWh) worth of cells annually, for which it has invested $100 million.

The Economic Times wrote that Aggarwal also said that Ola Electric is okay with the government tapering off FAME (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India) subsidies to focus on the PLI (Production Linked Incentive) schemes.

The government is expected to announce details of FAME III during the budget session late in July. This is expected to support two, three, and four-wheeled EVs with a ₹10,000 crore budget allocation, the Economic Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

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