Ola Electric has been making waves in the EV industry both in its home country of India and around the world. The startup presented the world with some lofty goals. Among which includes a vast network of fast chargers in India called the Hypercharger network, which would consist of more than 100,000 charging stations. On top of that, it also aims to be the biggest EV maker on the planet, producing 2,000,000 electric vehicles per year.
This time around, Ola looks to be upping the stakes even further by introducing the first ever EV to feature XFC, or Extreme Fast Charging technology. Okay, sure, this sounds pretty cool, but how extreme is extreme? Well, how does fully charging your battery from 0 to 100 percent in five minutes sound? Yes, that’s what this technology claims to be able to do, and Ola is doing it in partnership with Israel-based tech company StoreDot.
StoreDot is a company specializing in cutting-edge battery technology that prides itself in its XFC technology. The company looks to mass produce the technology in the next couple of years, and Ola Electric is one of the first to capitalize on this even before the technology hits the mainstream. That said, the integration of StoreDot’s XFC technology in Ola Electric’s products is indeed inline with company CEO Bhavish Agarwal’s vision of having a predominantly made-in-India machine.
Ola Electric has plans of manufacturing battery cells in India, while the XFC technology used for the battery charging system will be sourced from StoreDot, and maybe even eventually produced in India. Ola Electric’s investment in StoreDot places Ola in the position of manufacturing the tech exclusively for StoreDot in India. This means that even in future applications of XFC outside of the Ola brand, the company may still have a stake in the technology.
What’s even better is that StoreDot continues to innovate, and is currently working on an even faster two-minute charging tech that it seeks to commercialize in the next ten years. This ties in nicely with all of Ola’s other initiatives, particularly the fast-charging network, as faster chargers mean a quicker turnover time and overall more efficient operations. Furthermore, the notion of being able to fully charge your battery in under five minutes stands the chance of making range anxiety a thing of the past.
