Ola’s helping Kiwis with electric transport, via scooter

The Ola electric scooter will be built in India, with two million produced a year. Photo: Ola

Rideshare platform Ola has moved into manufacturing bringing electric mopeds scooters to New Zealand next year. 

The introduction of Ola’s electric scooters will help support the New Zealand government’s goal of on-roading 64,000 new electric vehicles by the end of 2021, while also helping the public sector become carbon neutral by 2025.

The scooters are part of Ola’s electric mobility business which has been setup to design and manufacture high quality electric two wheelers which consumers can purchase and own. It is a key part of Ola’s move towards offering sustainable mobility solutions across shared and owned mobility. 

Ola is in the advanced stages of setting up the world’s largest scooter factory in India. Once completed, the factory will have the capacity to manufacture over two million scooters a year. 

Ola’s electric scooter, which is set to launch across several markets has already won several design and innovation awards, including at Consumer Electronic Show (CES) and the German Design Awards.

Ola will continue to bring design and software innovations to its entire product line of two-wheelers as they bring new products to market.

Bhavish Agarwal, Chairman and Group CEO, Ola, said: “We welcome and strongly support the move by the Honourable Prime Minister and the New Zealand government towards carbon neutrality, especially in the mobility sector.

“We are excited about bringing our electric two wheelers to New Zealand to further accelerate development of sustainable solutions. Climate change is a serious challenge and Ola is committed to moving the world to sustainable mobility through our products.” 

Brian Dewil, Managing Director, Ola New Zealand said the government’s climate emergency announcement puts more responsibility on transport providers to step up and make changes.

“Ola wants to play an important part in New Zealand’s journey to become carbon neutral. We’ve witnessed strong and steady growth in the e-scooter and e-bike sector so we believe Ola’s new scooter product will be welcomed by consumers as a way to contribute towards establishing a 0-carbon economy”

Earlier this year, Ola announced plans to hire 2,000 people for its electric business as it rapidly builds a suite of electric and smart urban mobility solutions for consumers around the world. Ola Electric has raised about USD 400 million in funding from Tiger Global, Matrix India, Tata Sons Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata and others.