Bangalore-based electric vehicle maker Ola Electric has announced investment of Rs 3,994 to set up its Battery Innovation Centre (BIC).
The factory will be set-up in Bangalore, and will be a one-stop solution to develop complete packages of EV batteries – design, fabrication, and testing. Once functional, the BIC will be able to roll out cells in all form factors, including cylindrical, pouch, coin, and prismatic.
Ola said that the facility will feature more than 167 unique lab equipment including x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy machines (XPS), Gen 3 CT scan equipment for the Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) to facilitate its R&D on electric-vehicle battery cells.
The BIC will also be equipped with in-house production capability of mg to kg scale of anode and cathode material, integrated facility for hand-in-hand Nanoscale analysis and molecular dynamics simulation and an in-house crystal structure analysis to develop new battery materials.
The EV maker said that the facility will employ 500 PhDs and engineers who will be supported by an additional 1,000 researchers in India and several other global centres.
Bhavish Aggarwal, Founder and CEO, Ola Electric said, “Electric mobility is a high growth sector which is R&D intensive. Ola’s Battery Innovation Center in Bangalore will be the cornerstone for core cell tech development and battery innovation out of India for the world. BIC will house advanced labs and high-tech equipment for battery innovation and will power India’s journey towards becoming a global EV hub.”
Ola Electric recently unveiled its indigenously manufactured lithium-ion cell NMC 2170. With the mass production of its in-house cell expected to begin from 2023 from its Gigafactory, the company aims to expand its cell technology in its bid to reduce the dependency on imports for EV production.
