Ola Electric’s Big Jump: Entering the Home Energy Market with Ola Shakti

Ola Electric is known for its electric scooters and motorcycles, but the company is now making a massive move beyond vehicles. It just announced its entry into India’s fast-growing Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) market. This move is a big deal, and Ola sees it as a ₹1 trillion (that’s 100,000 crore rupees) business opportunity. The new product is called Ola Shakti, a home battery designed to store energy and give customers a more reliable power supply.

This change signals Ola’s growth from just an EV maker into a wider clean-energy company. The company explained in an official filing that it has “built world-class battery and cell technology for electric mobility. Ola Shakti extends that innovation to homes.”

What makes this possible without huge new investments? Ola is smart about it. It plans to use the same 4680 cell technology and the same gigafactory it already built for its electric vehicles. This lets them start up and grow quickly, using its existing nationwide sales and service network.

India’s Massive Need for Battery Storage

The market Ola is entering, the BESS market, is still quite small in India but is expected to explode in the coming years.

The Opportunity and Growth

The BESS market in India was valued at about $250 million in 2024, and experts predict it could balloon to $1.2 billion by 2030. That’s a super-fast growth rate of around 27% every year. Other forecasts are even more optimistic, suggesting the whole market—for both homes and the power grid—could be worth more than ₹3 trillion by 2030.

Why the huge potential? Because India is aggressively adding more solar and wind power, which are great, but they only generate electricity when the sun shines or the wind blows. To keep the lights on 24/7, India needs massive amounts of energy storage to capture that power and release it when needed. Analysts suggest India will need a staggering 50–60 GW of storage capacity by 2030 to keep the power grid stable.

Government Support

The Indian government is pushing hard to make this happen. Since 2022, they’ve invited bids for nearly 13 GWh of battery storage projects, with 9 GWh offered just recently in early 2025. The government has also provided incentives, like waiving transmission charges for energy storage projects, which makes these projects more attractive to investors.

However, the market isn’t without its challenges. There are still uncertainties about the rules and regulations, the cost of projects, and reliance on supply chains for raw materials and components.

Why Ola Shakti is a Game-Changer

Ola’s move is not just about launching a new product; it’s a strategic shift that uses its core strengths.

Using In-House Tech

The biggest advantage for Ola is that it uses its own 4680 ‘Bharat Cell’ technology. They designed this for their EVs, and now they are adapting it for home use. This saves development time, reduces costs, and means they don’t have to rely as much on outside companies for their most critical component—the battery cell.

Factory and Sales Advantage

Ola’s massive gigafactory in Tamil Nadu, originally built for EV batteries, will now also produce the packs for Shakti. By using the same factory and the same nationwide service network established for their scooters, Ola can save money and reach customers all over India faster than starting from scratch.

A New Energy Focus

Ola’s leadership believes this is a vital step toward creating “energy independence” for India. They even predict that within a few years, the demand for battery cells for their home storage business might be even greater than the demand for their car batteries. This suggests a major pivot in the company’s long-term business model—moving from a vehicle company to a much broader energy platform.

This diversification also makes financial sense. While Ola’s core e-scooter market share has dropped recently (down to about 12% in late 2025 from a high of 50%), this new BESS venture could help them find a new stream of income and improve their overall profits.

Ola Shakti: Features and Price

Ola Shakti is designed to be a complete, reliable, and smart solution for Indian homes.

Key Technical Details

The system has several impressive features:

• Instant Power: It can switch between grid and battery power in 0 milliseconds, meaning your electronics won’t even flicker when the power goes out.
• Smart Management: It uses algorithms to “learn” your family’s energy habits and automatically optimizes power use, saving you money.
• Safety and Efficiency: It has high-level safety features (like those in cars), is weatherproof with an IP67 rating (safe from dust and water), and has high efficiency (about 98% of the power stored is usable).
• Modern Capabilities: It can be updated remotely (Over-the-Air updates), has smart features like charging only during off-peak hours (Time-of-Day charging), and you can monitor and control everything from a mobile app.

Price Options

Ola is launching Shakti in four different capacity sizes to fit various home needs and budgets. The introductory pricing applies to the first 10,000 units:

Customers can reserve a unit now for just ₹999. Deliveries are expected to start in mid-January 2026.

The Road Ahead

Ola’s entry is a significant event for the Indian energy sector. By bringing a big brand name, advanced technology, and mass-market manufacturing to the home storage market, Ola is likely to spur competition and quickly reduce costs for consumers.

This move has also boosted investor confidence. After the Shakti announcement, Ola Electric’s stock price jumped by more than 15% over three trading days, showing that the market is excited about the company’s new direction.

However, the company still faces risks, including the challenge of reliably delivering the batteries in huge numbers and dealing with the already thin profit margins in the storage business. If Ola can execute its plan well, the shift to a clean-energy platform could solidify its future and have a lasting impact on how Indians power their homes.