Ola to set up 100,000 charging points for electric two-wheelers across 400 cities

Ola Electric has announced its plans for providing charging solutions for its electric two-wheeler customers and unveiled the charging network christened ‘Ola Hypercharger Network’. The announcement comes just a day after the world’s largest two-wheeler company Hero MotoCorp’s JV with Taiwan’s Gogoro, which will see the partners deploying battery-swapping tech in the country.

The company says in addition to providing a home-charger with its electric scooter, the soon-to-be-launched Ola e-scooters will be able to utilise its high-speed charging network. The concept is similar to Ather Grid.

Ola aims to create the widest and densest electric two-wheeler charging network, with more than 100,000 charging points across 400 cities. In the first year alone, the company says it will set up over 5,000 charging points across 100 cities in India. The fast-charging network will enable Ola e-scooter to be charged 50% in just 18 minutes, which will translate to around 75km range. The hyperchargers will be set-up across cities in city centres, dense business districts as standalone towers as well as in popular locations such as malls, IT parks, office complexes, cafes and more.

Bhavish Aggarwal, chairman and Group CEO, Ola said, “Electric is the future of mobility and we are reimagining the entire user experience of owning an electric vehicle. Our plans to build a comprehensive charging network is a key piece of this. By creating the world’s largest and densest two-wheeler charging network, we will dramatically accelerate the customer adoption of electric vehicles and rapidly move the industry to electric.” 

Ola customers will be able to plug their scooter into the charging point at its network and will be able to monitor the charging progress in real time on the Ola Electric app and the same app can be used to seamlessly pay for the charging as well. What’s interesting to note is that the Ola e-scooters, which are based on Etergo’s AppScooter, have no mention of a battery swapping feature. The Appscooter’s unique ‘Banana’-shaped battery allows it to be easily carried for conveniently charging it anywhere.