Ola Electric to run women-only Tamil Nadu factory; to hire 10,000 women on the shopfloor

Electric scooter maker Ola Electric’s upcoming Futurefactory in Tamil Nadu will eventually be run entirely by women.

Ola's chief executive Bhavish Aggarwal claimed that the factory is the “world’s largest” women-only factory and the only all-women automotive manufacturing facility in the world.

He said that the company will be hiring over 10,000 women for the factory by the time it operates at full scale. 

“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.

We have invested significantly to train and upskill them in core manufacturing skills and they will be responsible for the entire production of every vehicle manufactured at Ola Futurefactory,” Aggarwal added in a blog post. 

The ride-hailing company, which has been hyping its upcoming consumer electric scooters, had announced a Rs 2,400 crore investment last year for setting up the Futurefactory in Tamil Nadu.

In the first phase, the factory is expected to start with an annual production capacity of 10 lakh units and scale up to 20 lakh if demand for the scooters grows. It’s supposed to have a capacity of 1 crore units, according to Ola. 

The electric-vehicle (EV) maker started taking pre-orders for the Ola S1 and Ola S1 pro scooters last month.

However, last week the company said it would have to postpone the sale of the Ola S1 by a week due to “technical difficulties” on its website.

The Ola S1 has an ex-showroom price of at Rs 99,999, while the Ola S1 Pro will sell at Rs 1,29,999.

The prices may differ based on which state the scooter is bought at.