Ola is arranging the final pieces of its EV puzzle before it goes all-in into its new electric vehicles manufacturing venture, Ola Electric. One of the most precious piece of this arrangement has to be OLA Electric’s new signing, Wayne Burgess. The internationally acclaimed automotive designer of some of the most legendary and iconic cars like the Bentley Arnage, Aston Martin’s DB9, the Jaguar XF, F-Type, F-Pace SUV, XE, Burgess has been appointed as the head of vehicle design for OLA Electric’s entire product range including scooters, bikes and cars.
Wayne Burgess has designed vehicles for premium auto manufacturers including Rolls Royce, Bentley, Aston Martin, Jaguar Landrover and Lotus, in his career spanning over three decades.
Bhavish Aggarwal, chairman and Group CEO, Ola, “Wayne is a fantastic addition to our leadership team and will bring global appeal and design aesthetic to our industry changing electric vehicles.”
“As the world moves to EVs, the vehicle form factors will be fundamentally reimagined. Wayne’s expertise in designing some of the most legendary vehicles will also be helpful in bringing these new form factors to consumers. I look forward to collaborating with him to build the most iconic range of EVs in the world,” the Ola CEO further commented on the new appointment.
On the challenges at Ola Electric, Wayne commented, “I am looking forward to my work at Ola Electric and to the opportunity to lead a team that will work on designing cutting-edge electric vehicles for the world.”
Okay, I can’t resist it anymore. Mr Wayne, could we have a Batmobile, please?
Ola is all set to launch the first in its range of electric scooters in India in the next few months. The startup claimed, the e-scooter will be packed with advanced innovations to offer the customers the best-in-class performance and experience. And the electric two-wheeler will be priced aggressively to make it accessible to all.
Recent comments from the company CEO also revealed that the upcoming electric scooter will also make it to international markets, including countries like France, Italy, and Germany this fiscal only. It also has plans to add UK and Spain to its market list in the future.
During the same revelation, Bhavish Aggarwal also shared the details of its Hypercharger fast-charging network and went on to claim that it is going to be the largest two-wheeler EV charging network. He informed the Hypercharger will be able to charge the company’s electric scooters to 50% in just 18 minutes and this should be good enough for a 75 km range. As per Ola, their Hypercharger network will be spread over 400 cities with 1,00,000+ charging points (Well that’s a huge number by all means).
Currently, the construction of the upcoming Ola Electric future factory is in full swing in Tamil Nadu, India, ahead of the company’s rollout plans for later this year. The company will be introducing electric scooters in India and overseas.
The company informed, “The Ola Futurefactory will be the world’s largest two-wheeler factory when fully operational at 10 million-a-year capacity next year. The factory will start manufacturing the Ola Scooter as soon as its first phase of 2 million annual capacity is ready this summer,” it added. Earlier this week, the Indian start-up also announced its plans to open a dedicated global EV design centre in Bengaluru. The company has also recently confirmed in a report that it will introduce electric four-wheelers in the next few years.
Overall, OLA Electric sounds like a project India needs right now for an all-electric future, especially after our last days report on EV owners switching back to internal combustion motor vehicles.
