Bengaluru-headquartered EV startup Ola Electric has received its second PLI-Auto certificate under the government’s automotive production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme. The company has received the certificate for its Gen-2 Ola S1 Pro e-scooter, from nodal homologation and research body – ICAT (Manesar) – which falls under the aegis of the Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI).

The electric vehicle maker has successfully met the government’s PLI norms of achieving a minimum of 50 percent domestic value addition (DVA) in its Gen-2 Ola S1 Pro electric scooter, which has become the second product in its all-electric lineup to qualify for the PLI scheme, after the Ola S1 Air, which received the PLI certificate from ARAI, Pune last month.

The Gen-2 Ola S1 Pro was launched in the country in August 2023. The company has achieved a DVA of 51.84 percent for this e-scooter.  The certificate was awarded to Dr SJ Dhinagar, Head of Engineering, Ola Electric by Dr Hanif Qureshi, Additional Secretary, MHI, in New Delhi, today, in presence of Saurabh Dalela, Director, ICAT, and Subrat Kumar Dash, Associate Director, Vehicle Product Development - Homologation & Regulations, Ola Electric.

According to Dr Hanif Qureshi, IPS, Additional Secretary, MHI, "We have set a 90-day timeline for the homologation bodies to complete the DVA assessment, and this certification has been done in a record time."

According to Saurabh Dalela, Director, ICAT, "We are authorised by the government to qualify or disqualify companies for the PLI scheme, depending upon their meeting the guidelines. We evaluate products for their DVA by also visiting the companies' manufacturing sites, and evaluating their manufacturing processes as well." 

The 50 percent DVA or in simpler terms, localisation content, is a prerequisite for an applicant to be eligible for certification under the PLI-Auto scheme, which was launched by the MHI in 2021 for the automobile and automotive component industries with a budget outlay of Rs 25,938 crore. The scheme aims to promote indigenisation and local manufacturing of advanced automotive technology (AAT) products, and attract investments in the automotive manufacturing value chain.

Ola Electric, which has a 1-million-capacity manufacturing plant in Tamil Nadu is locally manufacturing AAT products including the electric motor, and battery pack indigenously at its plant, while the manufacturing of the BMSes, and digital instrument clusters on its e-scooters have been outsourced to players like Foxconn.

To facilitate a smooth application process, in April 2023, the Ministry also issued an SOP, outlining the necessary formats to be uploaded through the MHI portal by the eligible applicants, including the shortlisted candidates categorised as Champion OEMs, and Champion component manufacturers. As per Ola Electric, the certification is a demonstration of its commitment to the indigenisation of AAT products, and being a recipient shows its dedication to the government’s ‘Make-in-India’ initiative, and strengthening the domestic production ecosystem. 

The International Centre for Automotive Technology (ICAT), which is one of the divisions of the National Automotive Board (NAB), says it continues to evaluate and assess the Auto PLI applications of some more applicants for certifying their DVAs. The nodal homologation body located in Manesar, Haryana, says that it is likely that many other players will receive their PLI-Auto certificates from ICAT soon. 

While the new range of Ola e-scooters, launched on August 15, 2023, garnered over 75,000 bookings within a fortnight, the company became the first Indian OEM to sell over 250,000 e-two-wheelers in a year in CY23. With retail sales of over 253,000 units last year, Ola Electric emerged as the leading e-two-wheeler player in the country with a total market share of over 31 percent. The company is now in the process of its IPO, and is eyeing a local battery cell manufacturing plant in Tamil Nadu.