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Ola Electric to invest £100m in new engineering centre
Indian EV manufacturer Ola Electric has announced plans to invest £100m in a new global centre for advanced engineering and vehicle design.
Based in Coventry and called Ola Futurefoundry, the centre will work in sync with the design and engineering teams based at Ola Campus in Bangalore, India. It will focus on two-wheel and four-wheel vehicle design, advanced high performance automotive engineering, and digital and physical modelling. It will also house talent that will work on new energy system developments, including cell technologies.
Ola will invest £100m over the next five years into the state-of-the-art centre, which will employ over 200 designers and automotive engineers. The centre will also partner with education and research institutions in the UK to collaborate on technology research and development.
Bhavish Aggarwal, founder and CEO of Ola, said: “At Ola, we are building the future of mobility and continue to attract the best global talent across disciplines. Ola Futurefoundry will enable us to tap into the fantastic automotive design and engineering talent in the UK to create the next generation of electric vehicles. Futurefoundry will work in close collaboration with our headquarters in Bangalore, India to help us build the future of mobility as we make EVs affordable across the world.”
Wayne Burgess, vice president of vehicle design at Ola Electric, added: “We want to create a world class design and R&D team with global sensibilities. Ola Futurefoundry is an important step in building a multi-disciplinary team that is agile, flexible, and responsive to the various needs of our consumers around the world. We are setting up in Coventry a global epicenter of automotive and technology talent. Futurefoundry will supplement and collaborate with our core team in Bangalore, India to deliver exciting new EVs across two wheeler, four wheeler and other form factors.”