Ola Electric is planning to raise up to Rs 2,000 crore by selling stake in its battery unit Ola Cell Technologies (OCT). This fund raising process is being handled by investment banks Avendus Capital and Motilal Oswal Financial Services. This step is being taken at a time when Ola Electric is working on restructuring its business and strengthening its balance sheet. Also, the company is trying to increase battery manufacturing and energy storage capacity in the country.
OCT owns Ola’s lithium-ion battery cell manufacturing plant in Tamil Nadu, which currently has a capacity of about 1.5 GWh. The company is planning to increase it to 6 GWh by the end of the current financial year. This process of selling stake will also help in determining the market value of this battery manufacturing project, which has not been decided yet. According to PTI report, many financial investors have shown interest in this project, including some sovereign wealth funds.
Big step in battery manufacturing
This Gigafactory, built with an initial investment of about Rs 3,500 crore, is being considered a big step towards localizing battery cell manufacturing in India. Industry experts believe that it is necessary to make battery cells domestically, so that dependence on imports can be reduced and the country’s electric vehicle supply chain can be strengthened. Apart from two-wheelers, this plant will also help in manufacturing energy storage products and systems for many other sectors.
Portfolio of 400 patents ready
The company’s battery research and development activities take place at the Ola Battery Innovation Centre, which operates under OCT. According to the report, more than 200 experts and researchers work in this center and a portfolio of about 400 patents has been prepared here. This research is being done on various types of battery technologies, such as nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC), lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP), lithium-manganese-iron-phosphate (LMFP) and lithium-manganese-rich (LMR). Apart from this, work is also being done on different battery designs like cylindrical, prismatic and solid-state cells.
Renewable energy capacity will increase
As the capacity of renewable energy increases in India, the demand for energy storage is also expected to increase. The country has set a target of achieving 50% of total electricity generation from renewable sources by 2030. Since solar and wind energy are not continuously available, the need for energy storage systems between production and use will increase. Ola has already launched Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) for homes and now it is planning to expand into commercial energy storage solutions as well.