Ola, one of India’s leading mobility platforms, has announced that it has partnered with Siemens to build its upcoming electric vehicle manufacturing facility.

The announcement comes on the heels of Ola’s memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Tamil Nadu government to invest nearly ₹24 billion (~$329 million) towards building this facility.

The factory will generate nearly 10,000 jobs. With an initial capacity of two million units a year, it is slated to be the world’s largest scooter manufacturing facility. It will serve as Ola’s global manufacturing hub catering to its customers in India and key markets across Europe, the UK, Latin America, Australia, and New Zealand.

Ola’s upcoming electric scooter is the first in its range of electric vehicles, and the company plans to completely reimagine what people should expect from a scooter – right from buying to the ownership and the service experience.

In May last year, Ola acquired Etergo BV, an Amsterdam-based electric scooter maker. Etergo, founded in 2014, had developed an all-electric scooter, AppScooter, that uses high energy density batteries to provide a range of up to 240 km.

Ola said its factory would be built on Industry 4.0 principles, housing 5,000 robots across various functions. Ola will have access to Siemens’ integrated ‘digital twin’ design and manufacturing solutions to digitalize and validate product and production ahead of actual operations.

The digital twin is the precise virtual model of a machine (or product) or production plant. It is fed with the real-world machine, production, and production and machine performance data along the entire value chain, so it can be constantly optimized.

The factory would be powered through artificial intelligence (AI) with Ola’s proprietary AI Engine and tech stack deeply integrated into every aspect of the manufacturing process, continuously self-learning and optimizing every aspect of the manufacturing process. The AI will provide unprecedented control, automation, and quality to the entire operations, especially with Ola’s implementation of cyber-physical and advanced IoE systems.

According to Ola, the factory’s material handling will be fully automated for maximum efficiency, right from raw materials, materials movement inside the factory, storage, and finished scooter rolling off the production lines before being loaded onto trucks.

Bhavish Aggarwal, Chairman and CEO Ola, said, “Ola is delighted to partner with Siemens to build the most advanced manufacturing facility in the country. The unit will be our global hub and set a benchmark in quality, scale, and efficiency, demonstrating India’s capability to build world-class cutting edge products. We look forward to bringing this factory online in the coming months and putting our products in the hands of customers.”

Sunil Mathur, Managing Director and CEO, Siemens India, said, “Siemens is a global leader in Industry 4.0, and we are proud to contribute to Ola’s vision of creating a factory of the future using our automation and digitalization expertise to ensuring the highest levels of productivity and quality while enabling an agile and flexible production process.”

Ola Electric Mobility, a company backed by Ola, raised ₹17.25 billion (~$250 million) from Tokyo-based SoftBank in July 2019.

Rahul is a staff reporter at Mercom India. Before entering the world of renewables, Rahul was head of the Gujarat bureau for The Quint. He has also worked for DNA Ahmedabad and Ahmedabad Mirror. Hailing from a banking and finance background, Rahul has also worked for JP Morgan Chase and State Bank of India. More articles from Rahul Nair.