The e-mobility firm, led by Bhavish Aggarwal, is a follow-up to ride-hailing startup Ola, which is set to go public next year.
Ola Electric Mobility Pvt’s new electric-scooter factory, which will be owned and managed exclusively by women, intends to produce 10 million two-wheelers yearly, or 15% of the world’s e-scooters by 2022. The e-mobility firm, led by Bhavish Aggarwal, is a follow-up to ride-hailing startup Ola, which is set to go public next year.
The factory’s construction, which will cost $330 million, began this week with the first set of workers. “When fully operational, Future factory will employ over 10,000 women, making it the world’s largest women-only factory and the world’s only all-women automobile production plant,” he said on Monday in a blog post. After completing a planned expansion next year, Ola Electric, which is backed by Soft Bank Group Corp. and Tiger Global Management, plans to roll out a scooter every two seconds. The plant will be heavily automated, with 3,000 robots coexisting with the business’s all-female staff.
Mr. Aggarwal’s ambition is to create a whole range of electric vehicles, including three-wheelers and cars, in the future. Ola’s first S1 e-scooter will cost 99,999 rupees ($1,360) in India, to compete with traditional two-wheelers. Exports are expected to start later this year.
“Providing economic possibilities to women improves not just their lives, but also the lives of their families and the whole society,” Mr Aggarwal added. Women make up just 12% of the local manufacturing workforce, according to the creator, and “for India to remain the world’s manufacturing powerhouse, we must emphasise upskilling and providing jobs for our women workforce.”
