Not relevant for India? Ola Electric officially shelves electric car project
- In 2022, Ola Electric had announced that it will launch its first electric car in India. The EV maker also offered a glimpse at the electric vehicle.
Ola Electric has officially pulled the plug off its first electric car project. The EV maker, which currently leads the electric two-wheeler segment in India, had announced its plans to develop an electric car for the market three years ago. The decision was announced by Bhavish Aggarwal, Founder and CEO at Ola Electric, during an interaction with news agency PTI in Delhi. He said the EV maker is more keen to work towards profitability after it launched its IPO earlier this month and focus more on products that are relevant for Indian customers.
Ola Electric had announced its plans to launch an electric sports car with an all-glass roof back in 2022. The EV maker also shared sketches and videos of the EV during its annual event on August 15, 2022. Back then, Ola Electric had said it would take two years to develop the electric car. Recently, reports suggested that Ola Electric has shelved its plans to develop the EV. However, the official confirmation has come almost a month later.
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Why Ola has shelved electric car project
The Ola Electric car, which could have challenged the likes of India's leading electric carmaker Tata Motors, promised around 500 kms of range in a single charge, drag coefficient of less than 0.21 cdr and 0-100 kmph sprint within four seconds. Bhavish Aggarwal, while confirming Ola's decision to shelve the electric car project, said, "Yes. We are not working on it right now. Our vision is to build products relevant for India and build technologies to enable those products at scale and we're going in a sequence, two-wheelers and then other products." The remarks came days after Ola Electric launched its IPO which has seen surge in pricing in a very short time.
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After scooters, Ola shifts focus on motorcycles
On August 15, Ola Electric forayed into the electric motorcycle segment in India with the launch of the Roadster. Available in three variants, the electric motorcycle is priced from ₹75,000 and offers range of up to 579 kms in a single charge in the top-spec Roadster Pro variant which costs almost ₹2 lakh (ex-showroom). Ola also sells electric scooters S1 Pro, S1 X and S1 Air. The EV maker wants to focus on models that will viable for Indian customers. Aggarwal said, “India needs to build a sustainable paradigm of energy and automotive. The global solution for sustainability is (electric) luxury cars... That's not relevant for India. India is (electric) two-wheelers, three-wheelers, maybe small cars."
Aggarwal has not clarified whether the car project has been completely scrapped or whether the EV maker will revive it near future. His remarks hinting that the electric car would not have been relevant for India is in stark contract to his aim to launch ‘cars at entry price with world-class technology’.
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