After efficiently coming into the Indian escooter market, in January, Ola Electrical began teasing its debut in the electric car segment — fairly a daring transfer for a five-year-old micromobility firm.
On Saturday, Bhavish Aggarwal, the corporate’s CEO, made some even bolder statements about Ola’s EV, as reported by Indian outlet News18. Talking on the firm’s manufacturing plant in Tamil Nadu, Aggarwal stated that Ola will probably be coming into the autonomous car phase.
Particularly, it’s growing autonomous driving options that can debut in its upcoming four-wheeler each for the Indian and the worldwide markets.
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Right here’s a have a look at what the EV will in all probability appear to be:
Are you able to guys hold a secret?
pic.twitter.com/8I9NMe2eLJ
— Bhavish Aggarwal (@bhash) January 25, 2022
Ambitiously, the CEO acknowledged that the tech is not going to solely be capable to compete with Tesla and Rivian, but in addition roll out by early 2024 on the newest.
As inspiring as it’s to see the event of minor EV makers, it’s tough to not doubt Ola’s plans.
The identical day of those bulletins, the corporate recalled greater than a thousand autos, after the battery of considered one of its S1Pro escooters burst into flames, on March 26 in Prune, India.
You may watch the incident under:
In response, Ola recalled 1,441 escooters to conduct diagnostics as a “pre-emptive measure,” though it acknowledged that the battery hearth was most certainly an remoted incident:
Ola Electrical to recall 1441 autos after current EV hearth in S1 Professional scooter. Ola says its preliminary evaluation reveals the thermal incident was an remoted one @CNBCTV18Live @CNBCTV18News @ShereenBhan @OlaElectric pic.twitter.com/ZPEsCDybY2
— Parikshit Luthra (@Parikshitl) April 24, 2022
In gentle of those occasions, nonetheless, it’s price contemplating whether or not Ola ought to concentrate on debuting on the difficult autonomous car phase, as an alternative of attending to the extra urgent points concerning its present product.
On prime of that, the set two-year timeframe for the launch of an EV with self-driving options within the likes of Tesla and Rivian is extraordinarily optimistic.
It took Tesla greater than a decade to ascertain itself globally, whereas even youthful Rivian is struggling to meet production targets, seeing its stock fall more than 25% throughout March. Rising EV startup Lucid Motors can be facing production hurdles.
We’re additionally speaking about automakers with a lot better sources which might be solely focusing their R&D in electrical automobile making. For reference, Tesla’s market cap is at $1 trillion and Rivian’s at $29.69 billion. Now let’s examine that with Ola’s $5 billion.
I can’t assist however surprise how Ola will efficiently roll out an autonomous EV, compete with the sharks of the market, and resolve its current escooter points — all inside two years and amidst the worldwide provide chain shortages. My guess is, we should always count on vital delays.
