New Delhi: The man behind the setting up of Ola Electric’s future factory and head of construction Nagi Reddy Sattigari has quit the company, sources aware of the matter told ETAuto.
Reddy who quit on Friday is likely to join as Chief Operating Officer of a construction and facade fabrication company, Alufit International, by the middle of this month, a second source aware of the matter informed ETAuto.
Reddy has over two decades of experience and was instrumental in getting the future factory project ready in a record less than 10 months. He quit Ola Electric in less than two years, making, maybe the 7th senior level resignation from the company.
Ola Electric’s Future factory lies at the forefront of its ambitions and is touted to be the largest factory with a capacity of 10 million units.
Ola Electric has brought on board U Venkata Phani Kumar to take over the reins from Reddy. Phani in his latest role was president (Special Projects) and Chief Executive Officer of Hindustan Construction Company.
Phani has over two decades of experience, including a decade as CEO. Prior to Hindustan Construction Company he was CEO of HOWE Engineering Projects India Pvt. Ltd. – Adani Arms-length Project Co. (PMC Merged with Howe in 2016)
Recently, ETAuto reported that Ola Electric Mobility’s head of advanced battery engineering, Ashok Saraswat, has resigned, joining as the latest of at least half a dozen senior executives who left the electric vehicle company in the past six months.
Saraswat had joined the SoftBank-backed Ola in 2021.
In a statement to ETAuto Ola Electric said that it is set to commence operations at its new R&D facility, the Battery Innovation Center. A USD-500 million campus spread over half a million sq ft in Bengaluru, it will house Ola Electric’s battery research operations. It will be used for studying new cell forms, as well as for design, fabrication, and testing.
Ola Electric, which currently manufactures electric scooters, and recently unveiled the prototype of an electric car, is one of the companies selected under the Indian government’s production-linked incentive scheme for advanced chemistry cell battery storage. It plans to launch its first electric car in the summer of 2024.
While the company is moving on its projects, it is also facing the exits of senior executives.
Yashwant Kumar, senior director and business head of charging network at Ola Electric, resigned in July. A week before that, Ola Electric HR director Ranjit Kondeshan had quit.
Chief technology officer Dinesh Radhakrishnan and director-chief engineer Zoeb Karampurwala left the company in April, 2022 after a year in service. Pankaj Sharma, who was its head of sales and distribution, India, was another senior executive who left the EV company this year.
Ola Electric has also made several hirings for top roles. It recently appointed Ramkripa Ananthan as head of design, for both the two-wheeler and four-wheeler divisions. She was with Mahindra & Mahindra.
It is also hiring for senior roles in manufacturing, supply chain, equipment, and automation engineering.