Ola Electric makes strategic investment in fast-charging firm StoreDot

As part of the investment, Ola Electric will have access to the company’s battery technology, which it claims can fully charge a battery in five minutes. Ola will also have exclusive rights to manufacture batteries with StoreDot’s fast charge technology in India.

The investment in StoreDot is the first of several global strategic investments planned by Ola Electric as it looks to ramp up its core research and development in advanced cell chemistry and manufacturing, as well as other battery technologies. Ola Electric said on March 16 that it
has hired former LG Chem CEO Prabhakar Patil as it plans to make battery cells on its own and set up a “giga-factory”. Ola Electric has already submitted a bid under the Indian government’s production linked incentive scheme for lithium-ion cell manufacturing.

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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.

“The future of EVs lies in better, faster and high-energy-density batteries capable of rapid charging and delivering higher range,” said Bhavish Aggarwal, founder and CEO of Ola. “We are increasing our investments in core cell and battery technologies and ramping up our in-house capabilities and global talent hiring, as well as partnering with global companies doing cutting edge work in this field. Our partnership with StoreDot, a pioneer of extreme fast-charging battery technologies, is of strategic importance and the first of many.”

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“Ola Electric’s plans to bring StoreDot’s extreme fast charging battery technology to India and manufacture for its range of EVs will offer Indian consumers vastly superior range and charging speed performance,” said Doron Myersdorf, CEO, StoreDot. “We are also offering our customers a clear, hype-free technology roadmap that will extend far into the future of delivering 100 miles of range with just a two-minute charge, within a decade.”