Ola Electric, India’s leading manufacturer of electric vehicles, has announced plans to invest £100million over the next five years to develop a new global centre for advanced engineering and vehicle design. Dubbed Ola Futurefoundry, the centre will be based in Coventry and have a staff of more than 200 designers and automotive engineers.
According to the company, Ola Futurefoundry will work with its design and engineering teams based at the Ola Campus in Bangalore, India. It will support global talent from multiple disciplines related to the design and development of two- and four-wheel vehicle design, as well as advanced high-performance automotive engineering, digital and physical modelling, and more. It will also employ a team of engineers that will focus on the research and design of new energy systems, including cell technologies.
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The centre will also partner with education and research institutions in the UK to collaborate on technology research and development.
‘At Ola we are building the future of mobility and continue to attract the best global talent across disciplines,’ said Bhavish Aggarwal, the company’s founder and CEO. ‘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 to help us build the future of mobility as we make EVs affordable across the world.’
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‘We want to create a world class design and R&D team with global sensibilities,’ said Wayne Burgess, vice president of vehicle design. ‘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 epicentre of automotive and technology talent. Futurefoundry will supplement and collaborate with our core team in Bangalore to deliver exciting new EVs across two-wheelers, four-wheelers and other form factors.’