Ola Developing Indigenous Cell, Alternate Tech for Rare Earth Magnet: Bhavish Agarwal

Ola Electric has drawn up aggressive plans under its Gen 3 initiative, including an indigenously developed Bharat Cell and AI-enabled MoveOS software for electric vehicles, a top company official said on Friday.

The company, at its factory here, has commenced development of Ferrite motor technology that would replace the use of rare earth magnets, used in the development of its products, Ola Electric founder-CEO Bhavish Aggarwal said.

Addressing the gathering at the annual "Sankalp" on the theme 'India Inside', Aggarwal said, "We started Ola Electric four years ago. (Today) We will show you the vision for New India, a strong India, a self-sufficient India in the electric vehicle space. We want to be the number one electric vehicle company in the world".

"The main message today for you all is that the world is in a complex geopolitical space, like imposing 50% tariffs...We want to build the best in India, and that's the spirit of Ola Electric. That's why the theme India Inside," he said, addressing employees who were present in large numbers during the Sankalp ceremony.

Elaborating about his vision, Agarwal said, his company has developed an entirely new Bharat Cell 4680 at the Krishnagiri factory to offer more benefits to customers, including fast recharge, better safety features and most importantly, it comes with "lower cost to produce".

Ola Electric Head, Research and Development, Rajesh Mekkat said the 4680 Bharat cell comes with over 15 years of battery life, 5X capacity than the competition and provides 80% charging within 15 minutes.

The current generation of cells offered by competition takes 30 minutes to charge 50% of the battery, he claimed.

The company plans to use the Bharat cell range across all its products gradually, he said.

A new scooter, the Ola Pro Sport scooter equipped with the Bharat Cell, was also unveiled by Agarwal on the occasion.

He also launched the Ferrite Motor technology, an alternative to rare earth magnets, used in the development of electric vehicles.

India needs to leapfrog to the next generation, as these rare earth magnets are coming from "very few nations", he noted.

Ola Electric, Head of Vehicle Engineering, Samraj Dhinakar said Ferrite Motor would become an alternative technology for rare earth magnets in future.

Declining to reveal investments that went into the development of Ferrite Motor at the factory, Aggarwal said vehicles equipped with this new technology would be rolled out in the third quarter of the current financial year. Subsequently, the use of rare earth magnets would be avoided.

The occasion also witnessed the launch of AI-enabled MoveOS6 software, which is incorporated in the electric vehicles.

Ola Electric, Head, Software Engineering, Anirbhan Das, said the MoveOS6 software can tell how a customer can improve the battery life of an electric scooter or motorcycle, and provides a voice assistant feature, among others.

It also offers collision alert, blind spot detection and can communicate in 11 different languages, he added.

The new software would be available to existing and new customers from January 2026, he said.

Aggarwal said the development of Bharat Cell 4680 and Ferrite Motor technology would be christened under the company's Gen 3 initiative.

After unveiling the prototype electric motorcycle Diamond Head, the CEO said his company expects to price it under ₹5 lakh, and the vehicle will have a host of features, including self-driving technology (remote summon). It can achieve a speed of 0-100 in 2 seconds.

"We want to change the face of (electric) two-wheelers forever. With Diamond Head, a rider becomes the ride. It will be the most amazing and performance bike in the world. We are planning to launch it in mid-2027 and have targeted to price it under ₹5 lakh," he said.