Ola’s Indigenous Lithium-Ion Battery Ready, To Boost Market Share: CEO Bhavish Aggarwal

Ola Electric has begun integrating its in-house developed 4,680 Bharat Cell into its vehicles, with founder and Chief Executive Bhavish Aggarwal saying the move will strengthen the company's margins and market position. The company claims that this is India's first indigenously developed lithium-ion cell.

“The heart of a vehicle is the cell… the biggest cost driver, the biggest performance driver, everything, is the cell,” Aggarwal told NDTV Profit in am exclusive interview. “When our cell comes in, that gross margin will further go up. So then that cell coming in starts this quarter.”

The company formally announced the 4680 Bharat Cell at its annual ‘Sankalp' event under the theme ‘India Inside.' It described the battery as India's first indigenously developed lithium-ion cell, produced at Ola's Krishnagiri factory. Ola said the new technology would allow faster recharge, improved safety, and lower costs to produce.

The Bharat Cell “comes with over 15 years of battery life, 5X the capacity of the competition and provides 80% charging within 15 minutes,” Ola Electric Head of Research and Development Rajesh Mekkat said in a media statement, adding that rival offerings take 30 minutes to reach 50% charge.

The company plans to gradually deploy the Bharat Cell across its products. At the event, Aggarwal also unveiled the Ola Pro Sport scooter equipped with the new cell.

Vertical Integration Push

Ola is expanding its vertical integration strategy to reduce dependence on imports. “We're the only one in that scheme who has put up a factory and is producing commercial cells,” Aggarwal told NDTV Profit.

As part of its Gen 3 initiative, Ola also launched a ferrite motor technology designed to replace rare earth magnets in its products. “India needs to leapfrog to the next generation, as these rare earth magnets are coming from very few nations,” Aggarwal said. Vehicles equipped with the new motor are expected to roll out in the third quarter of the current financial year.

The ferrite motors would serve as “an alternative technology for rare earth magnets in the future,” Ola Electric's Head of Vehicle Engineering Samraj Dhinakar said.

The company also introduced AI-enabled MoveOS6 software, which will be available from January 2026. The system includes a voice assistant, collision alert, blind spot detection, and multi-language support. “The MoveOS6 software can tell how a customer can improve the battery life of an electric scooter or motorcycle,” Ola Electric's Head of Software Engineering Anirbhan Das said.

Ola capped the announcements with a prototype of its Diamond Head electric motorcycle. Aggarwal said the bike, targeted for launch in mid-2027 at a price under Rs 5 lakh, would include remote summon and achieve 0–100 kmph in two seconds. “We want to change the face of (electric) two-wheelers forever,” he said.