In Ola’s battery efforts, a shift in Indian innovation

When I visited Ola Electric's Battery Innovation Centre in Bengaluru, I expected a modest setup, a typical R&D lab focused on incremental improvements.

- Vivek Wadhwa

What I encountered instead was a full-scale effort to reimagine and industrialise one of the most complex and strategically important technologies of our time — the lithium-ion cell. Nearly 500 researchers were at work, many with experience in labs and companies across South Korea, Japan, Germany, and the US. They weren't tweaking specs on imported components; they were building a new type of battery from the ground up.

At the centre of this effort is the 4,680-format cylindrical cell, a design originally popularised by Tesla. This format is known for higher energy density, improved thermal management, and structural integration in electric vehicles (EVs). But Ola has taken a riskier path by developing its own version using dry electrode manufacturing, a technique that avoids the toxic solvents and energy-hungry ovens of conventional production. Rather than coating materials in wet slurry, Ola’s method presses a dry mix directly onto the current collector. It is faster, cleaner, and more energy-efficient, eliminating solvent recovery systems, improving consistency, and lowering costs.

The company says it has spent three years building this capability from scratch and has achieved consistent, high-volume production for both cathodes and anodes. While companies in China, Korea, and the US are still struggling to scale this technology, Ola claims it has already made it work at volume.