Ola Invests $500M to Build Battery Innovation Center in Bengaluru, Energy News, ET EnergyWorld

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Bengaluru: Ola Electric on Monday announced it has invested US$500 million to build its state-of-the-art Battery Innovation Center (BIC) in Bengaluru.

BIC will be one of the world’s largest and most advanced cell research and development facilities with more than 165 “unique and cutting-edge” laboratory equipment to cover all aspects of cell-related research and development, the electric vehicle company said.

“Ola’s BIC will house proto-lines capable of producing all form factors, cylindrical, pouch, coin and prismatic cells, it said.

The center will have capacity to develop complete packages for battery pack design, manufacturing and testing under one roof, the company said in a statement.

“BIC will also be equipped with its own production capacity of mg-to-kg-scale anode and cathode material, an integrated facility for hand-in-hand nano-scale analysis and molecular dynamics simulations, and its own crystal structure analysis for the development of new battery materials,” it said .

The BIC will recruit top talent from around the world, including 500 PhD students and engineers, who will be supported by another 1,000 researchers in India and several other global centers, the company said.

Bhavish Aggarwal, Founder and CEO of Ola Electric, said electric mobility is a high-growth, R&D-intensive sector.

“Ola’s Battery Innovation Center in Bangaluru will be the cornerstone for the development of core cell technologies and battery innovations from India to the world. BIC will house advanced labs and high-tech equipment for battery innovation and propel India’s path to becoming a global electric vehicle hub,” he said.

Ola recently introduced its first lithium-ion cell, NMC 2170. Ola will be built in-house and will begin mass-producing his cell at his forthcoming Gigafactory by 2023.

The company was recently allocated 20GWh capacity for advanced cell development in India under the ACC PLI program by the government and is constructing a cell fabrication facility with an initial capacity of up to 20GWh to locate the most critical part of the EV value chain, it said.

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