Bhavish Agarwal, the CEO of Ola Electric has announced that the brand has developed its first Li-ion battery cell for EVs. The brand has labeled it as “NMC 21700” and will begin its mass production by 2023 at its Gigafactory in Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu. The brand will also receive incentives under the Indian Government’s $2.4 Bn PLI scheme for the same. With the local production of li-ion battery cells, which are the core and one of the most expensive components of an EV, the prices of Ola’s products will decrease by a significant margin.
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As per the reports, these battery cells from Ola Electric utilize lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC) on the cathode side, and graphite & silicon on the anode side. Due to the higher lithium diffusion rate and electron mobility, the NMC batteries have a higher energy density when compared to the LFP batteries and require lower maintenance. The brand further claims that these cells have been developed keeping in mind the Indian climate conditions.
Considering Ola’s tie-up with the Israel-based battery technology company, StoreDot, we expect these indigenously developed battery cells to feature ultra-fast charging technology.
At present, the Ola Electric sources the battery cells from South Korea’s LG Chem for its S1 and S1 Pro electric scooters. The non-removable banana-shaped battery pack of these e-scooters comprises 224 li-ion cells split into two sets of 112 units each.
