Ola Electric aims to build world's largest women-only factory: 10 things to know
2 min read 13 Sep 2021, 06:37 PM ISTThe Ola Futurefactory, where the recently-launched Ola electric scooters are being made, will employ 10000 women at full capacity.
PremiumThe Ola Futurefactory, home to Ola scooter and the largest e-scooter factory in the world, will be run entirely by women. “An Aatmanirbhar Bharat requires Aatmanirbhar women," said Ola Electric CEO Bhavish Aggarwal in a post announcing the decision on Monday.
The first batch of the women-exclusive workforce arrived at the facility in Chennai, brimming with enthusiasm to drive the EV revolution promised by Ola. Their first task will be to ready Ola's S1 and S1 Pro electric scooters for delivery.
“This is the first in a series of initiatives we are undertaking at Ola to create a more inclusive workforce and provide economic opportunities for women across the board," Aggarwal said.
“Enabling women with economic opportunities improves not just their lives but that of their families and indeed the whole community. In fact, studies show that just providing women parity in the labor workforce can grow India’s GDP by 27 per cent," the Ola Electric CEO said on the macroeconomic prospects of the move.
Along with a very unique workforce, Ola Electric has set several noteworthy goals for its Futurefactory. Here are 10 things you need to know about the factory:
- Ola Futurefactory will employ over 10,000 women when at full capacity, working alongside more than 3,000 AI-driven robots.
- Ola Futurefactory will become the world’s largest women-only factory and the only all-women automotive manufacturing facility globally.
- CEO Bhavish Aggarwal said Ola Electric has invested significantly to train and upskill its all-women workforce in core manufacturing skills and they will be responsible for the entire production of every vehicle manufactured at Ola Futurefactory.
- Ola Electric aims to have an annual production capacity of 10 million electric scooters, which it estimates will be 15 per cent of current two-wheeler capacity. In the first phase, it has a production capacity of 2 million units.
- Ola plans to make one electric scooter every two seconds on its 10 production lines.
- Ola Electric is making its own battery packs, motor, vehicle computer and software to ensure that 90 per cent parts are present in close proximity to the Futurefactory. This is to ensure low costs.
- Ola Futurefactory will have its own paint shop with corrosion-resistant range of paintjobs, end-to-end automated conveyor movement for motors, weld shop with cold metal transfer technology, and ASRS set-up to reduce storage space for manufactured vehicles by 60 per cent.
- The entire facility will be spread across an area of 500 acres with a 43-acre megablock structure.
- The facility will have 100 acres of forest cover around it. It will even have 2 acres of forest inside the factory. While building the factory, every existing was transplanted and protected, Ola has said.
- To further reduce its carbon footprint, the Ola Futurefactory will receive 20 per cent of its power requirement from rooftop solar panel installation. Ola Electric intends to make the facility carbon negative.
