Ola announces plan for Hypercharger Network, a widespread charging infrastructure

It’s no secret that Ola Electric has been dabbling with electric mobility and in fact, its first product, the Ola Scooter is expected to launch in the upcoming months. With that in mind, Ola has announced plans for their all-new venture, the Hypercharger Network. It is essentially a charging infrastructure for Ola’s electric vehicles, which the company is claiming will be the largest electric two-wheeler charging network in the world.

Put simply, the Hypercharger Network is a charging infrastructure similar to what companies like Tesla and for examples closer to home, Ather Energy have been trying to implement to make charging their vehicles easier. Ola, however, wants to set up the network at a monumental scale with the long-term goal being over a lakh charging points spread across 400 cities in the country. The company plans to set up over 5000 charging points across 100 cities in the first year of operations. The Hypercharger will be set up as standalone towers in business districts and city centres and as charging points in easily accessible places like malls, IT parks, cafes, office complexes and such.

Apart from being the worlds largest, the company is also touting the Hypercharger to be the fastest charging network, with claims to charge the Ola Scooter to 50 per cent which will enable 75kms of range in eighteen minutes. There will also be a mobile application which will allow customers to track the charge status of their vehicles as well as pay for the charging.

Commenting on the announcement of the Hypercharger Network, Bhavish Aggarwal, chairman and group CEO, Ola, said, “Electric is the future of mobility and we are reimagining the entire user experience of owning an electric vehicle. Our plans to build a comprehensive charging network is a key piece of this. By creating the world’s largest and densest 2-wheeler charging network, we will dramatically accelerate the customer adoption of electric vehicles and rapidly move the industry to electric.”

With the launch of the Ola Scooter just a few months away, if Ola manages to deliver on their claims of developing this charging network, it will make electric mobility a lot more accessible and a viable option over internal combustion scooters and commuter bikes.