The plant will be “the largest women-only factory in the world and the only all-female automotive factory in the world,” according to the blog post.
The move is part of a series of efforts by the company to help create a more inclusive workforce and provide economic opportunities for women, Aggarwal said. “For India to be the manufacturing hub of the world, we need to prioritize training and job creation for our women’s workforce,” she added, citing a study that showed that providing parity to women in the workforce Labor can grow India’s GDP by 27%.
When the Ola Electric plant is fully built and ready to start by the end of next year, it is expected to have the capacity to produce 10 million electric scooters a year.
India faced a record drop of almost 24% of gross domestic product from April to June 2020 and unemployment in the country has been particularly high due to the economic slowdown related to the pandemic. India experienced its first recession in decades last year. While the country is still facing a pandemic, vaccines are helping the economy recover. India’s GDP grew just over 20% in the three months leading up to June 30th.
Ola Electric’s parent company, the giant Ola, backed by Softbank, has announced plans for an initial public offering next year. Ola also secured a $ 500 million investment in Temasek and Plum Wood Investment Ltd, a subsidiary of Warburg Pincus.
Aggarwal told CNBC last month that he wants both Ola and Ola Electric to go public.
“Both companies, in due course, will be made public. Obviously, Ola will be made public sooner, it’s a more mature business, sometime next year, but we don’t have a final date to share with everyone,” he added. Aggarwal.
Ola Electric launched its scooter earlier this summer, sparking the official announcement with a video of Aggarwal walking around Bangalore. The company recently hired Jose Pinheiro, the former vice president of manufacturing for General Motors as head of global manufacturing and operations for its electrical business.
