Ola Electric adds ex-LG Chem CEO Prabhakar Patil to board as it plans to make its own batteries

LG Chem is a leading lithium-ion cell manufacturing company. Currently, Ola Electric buys lithium-ion cells from foreign vendors and assembles them to make battery packs at its factory in Tamil Nadu. The battery pack is the most expensive component of an EV.

“We are investing deeply in core R&D to create indigenous advanced cell technologies and in large-scale manufacturing of batteries,” said Bhavish Aggarwal, founder and CEO of Ola.

Ola Electric is among the 10 companies that have applied for the Indian government’s $2.4 billion production linked incentive (PLI) scheme to develop and manufacture batteries for EVs.

Aggarwal said that Ola Electric would set up a 50GWh cell manufacturing plant in India. “Dr Prabhakar’s expertise will help us accelerate this process of bringing indigenously designed and manufactured cells to the market,” he said.

The company also said that it is scouting the world for strategic investments in companies focused on advanced cell chemistry research and other battery technologies. These, it hopes, will help it to offer better batteries for its upcoming vehicles, which include two- and four-wheelers.

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“I am delighted to join the Ola team and to do what I can to support their quest to fundamentally transform major segments of India’s electric mobility system to make it sustainable and self-reliant,” said Patil.

He joins Aggarwal; Arun Sarin, former CEO, Vodafone Group; B V R Subbu, former president, Hyundai Motor India; Sumer Juneja, managing partner, SoftBank Vision Fund; Jaime Ardila Gomez, former executive VP and president of South America for General Motors; TVG Krishnamurthy on the company’s board.