bhavish aggarwal surveys the empty 500acre expanse encircled by neonpainted homes tiny shrines and mango groves the highprofile ola founder hopes to erect the worlds largest electric scooter plant on this vacant plot on bangalores outskirts within the next 12 weeks cranking out about 2 million a year a landmark for one of indias largest startupsa twoandahalfhour drive southeast of bangalore aggarwals envisioned 330 million megafactory marks a bold foray into uncharted territory for an entrepreneur whos spent 10 years building a ridehailing giant his followup ola electric is getting into an electric vehicle market already crowded by names from tesla inc to chinas nio inc albeit with a humble twowheeler initially but that could play in a 200 billion domestic ev industry in a decadeif all goes according to plan his ola electric mobility pvt hopes to make 10 million vehicles annually or 15 of the worlds escooters by the summer of 2022 starting with sales abroad later this year that would be one scooter rolling out every two seconds after the plant expands next year its the first step in aggarwals goal to eventually assemble a full lineup of electric cars in a boost for prime minister narendra modis make in india and sustainable mobility ambitionsits a vehicle weve engineered groundup so india can get a seat at the world ev table the 35yearold said in an interview last week indian companies have the smarts and energy to leapfrog into the future of evaggarwal is getting into the market just as the core business of ridehailing slows during the pandemic fumespewing scooters and motorcycles remain the most popular mode of transport in indias infamously polluted cities but the country is now pushing electric vehicles and selfreliance in battery technologies that could according to the thinktank ceew centre for energy finance underpin a 206 billion ev market in 10 yearsthat wont be easy middleclass indians worry about air quality but are reluctant at current rates to fork out twice the price of a regular scooter for an electric version aggarwal too will have to fend off competition from not just local rivals hero motocorp and bajaj auto but also upandcomers such as ather energy and chinese brands including niu technologiesthe entrepreneur takes inspiration from the likes of tesla nio and xpeng inc which have outengineered established auto giants with evercheaper batteries and overtheair software capabilities but hes taking a different tack he wants to sell affordable two three and fourwheelers for urban rides our ambition is to build the worlds leading urban mobility ev company he saidola electric is aggarwals second act a decade ago he pioneered ridehailing in the country and took on uber technologies inc expanding across 200 cities before heading overseas to the uk australia and new zealand his ev startup was incorporated in 2017 and became a billiondollar company or unicorn two years later when softbank group corp and tiger global management forked out hundreds of millions it was the