Online cab aggregator Ola will introduce its electric scooter by the New Year. The electric scooter, initially manufactured at a facility in the Netherlands, will be sold in India as well as Europe. However, Ola has not made any official announcement on the market entry of the vehicle. The Ola Electric will be the EV arm of the ride-hailing company.
In May this year, Ola Electric acquired Amsterdam-based Etergo BV. Though it said the acquisition of Etergo further bolstered its engineering and design capabilities, it didn't give any hints about its investment in the deal. At the same time, the company made it amply clear that it will launch an electric two-wheeler in India.
The e-scooter is expected to be priced competitively against the current petrol scooters, the company said. It is looking at tapping into the 20 million units-two-wheeler market in India and sales of a million e-scooters in the first year itself.
The company is planning to import the initial batches of vehicles from its manufacturing facility in the Netherlands. Later, it could look at setting up a facility in India to meet the local demand more efficiently and participate in the government’s Atmanirbhar Bharat vision.
The company has already started talks with various state governments to set up India’s largest e-scooter manufacturing plant with an annual capacity of about two million units.
Founded in 2014, Dutch firm Etergo has developed an all-electric AppScooter that uses swappable high energy density batteries to deliver a range of up to 240 km in a single charge.