Ola on Wednesday announced that it has joined hands with Siemens to build India’s most advanced electric vehicle manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu. Last month, the popular ride-hailing platform signed a 2,400-crore-deal with the Tamil Nadu government to set up its first factory in the state. Upon completion, the factory will create almost 10,000 jobs, the company claimed.
The manufacturing hub in the southern state will be the world’s largest scooter manufacturing facility, which will initially have an annual capacity of 2 million units. The facility will serve as Ola’s global manufacturing hub catering to its customers in India as well as key markets across Europe, United Kingdom, Latin America, and ANZ.
Built on Industry 4.0 principles, the factory will be the most advanced manufacturing facility in the country. Around 5,000 robots will be deployed across various functions. Under the partnership, “Ola will have access to Siemens’ integrated Digital Twin design and manufacturing solutions to digitalise and validate product and production ahead of actual operations,” the company said.
It further mentioned, “The factory will be artificial intelligence-powered with Ola’s proprietary AI engine and tech stack deeply integrated into every aspect of the manufacturing process, continuously self-learning and optimising every aspect of the manufacturing process.” This will provide unprecedented control, automation, and quality to the entire operations, especially with Ola’s implementation of cyber-physical and advanced IoE systems.
From raw materials movement inside the factory to storage, to the finished scooter rolling off the production lines and being loaded onto trucks, the entire material handling at Ola’s factory will be fully automated for maximum efficiency. The company added, “These advanced technology systems will seamlessly blend with Ola’s workforce to provide the perfect synergy of humans and machines working in tandem to build the most efficient production system and deliver the highest quality products for Ola’s customers.”
Commenting on the partnership, Bhavish Aggarwal, chairman, and group CEO, Ola said, “This will be our global hub and will 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.”
The factory will produce Ola’s upcoming range of two-wheeler products starting with Ola’s electric scooter. It features many first including a seamless design, the unique removable banana battery that is easy to carry and can be charged anywhere as well as intelligence software that elevates the entire consumer experiences of owning a scooter, the company said. The Ola scooter has already won several prestigious design and innovation awards around the world including the Marketing Innovation award at CES and the German Design Award.
Ola earlier stated, “In Line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision, Ola’s factory is an important step in making an AtmaNirbhar Bharat. It will catalyze the reduction of India’s import dependence in a key future sector like electric vehicles, boost local manufacturing, create jobs as well as improve the technical expertise in the country.”
Sunil Mathur, MD, and CEO, of Siemens, said, “We are proud to contribute to Ola’s vision of creating a factory of the future using our automation and digitalisation expertise to ensuring the highest levels of productivity and quality while enabling an agile and flexible production process.”
