OLA Electric has just announced that it will be debuting its first all-electric vehicle in 2024, and it’s slated to be a game-changer. Although the car model has not been announced, several details about the car have been revealed, with it being touted as the “sportiest car built in India”.
For those unfamiliar, OLA Electric is an Indian electric vehicle manufacturer, previously only manufacturing electric two-wheelers. The company started out with ride-hailing, but set its focus on developing electric scooters in 2020.
In this video presentation that premiered on Aug 15th, OLA Electric CEO Bhavish Aggarwal revealed that the unnamed car will be able to go from 0 to 100 kilometres an hour (around 62 mph) in 4 seconds and that the estimated range will be over 500 kilometres per full charge. The keyless & handleless EV will also be running its own MoveOS operating system, previously used in its electric scooters, and will support assisted driving capability.
“We deserve a car that defines this new India. An India that’s fearless, and believes in writing its own destiny,” he said. Aggarwal also revealed that the cells used in the EV and OLA’s scooters will be developed in their OLA Battery Innovation Center, a world-class R&D facility. OLA also plans to expand its manufacturing footprint through the construction of its EV hub, which the CEO claims will be “India’s largest EV Ecosystem”.
The EV hub consists of three manufacturing facilities and is estimated to be able to produce around 1 million cars, 10 million two-wheelers and 100 GWh of cells annually. The four-wheeler manufacturing facility will also be India’s largest integrated and automated manufacturing plant. OLA believes that there is untapped potential in the Indian EV scene, which lags behind China, Europe and the US in EV manufacturing.
OLA also unveiled a new model in their line of electric two-wheelers, the OLA S1. The OLA S1 is the most affordable scooter in their catalogue and is the cheaper alternative to the S1 Pro. Initially, the S1 and S1 Pro were slated to release simultaneously, but the company decided to streamline production and release the S1 at a later date.
The new OLA S1 will be available at a price of INR99,999 (around USD1,251), which will be significantly cheaper than the S1 Pro, which is priced at around INR140,000 (around USD1,752). However, this price for the S1 will only be on release, for a limited number of scooters. This means that if you’re planning on snagging one for yourself, you better reserve one now.
The S1 will have an estimated 95kmph top speed, with a range up to 131km as follows:
- ARAI range of 131km
- Eco mode range of 128km
- Normal Mode range of 101km
- Sports mode range of 90km
Aside from the lower range, the S1 also misses out on the Cruise Control and Hyper Mode functionalities of the S1 Pro. However, the S1 will be running on OLA’s new MoveOS 3, with new features such as Moods, Digital Key Sharing, Proximity Unlock and many more.
