Bhavish Aggarwal To Elon Musk’s Challenge On Dry Electrode Cells: We Already Build Them!
A significant debate has erupted over the future of electric vehicle battery manufacturing, pitting the world’s most famous EV pioneer against India’s most aggressive new entrant. On February 5, 2026, Elon Musk stated on social media platform X that scaling "dry electrode" technology is "incredibly difficult," highlighting it as one of the toughest hurdles in modern battery mass production.
In a swift and confident counter, Ola Electric CEO Bhavish Aggarwal quoted the post with a correction: Ola isn’t just trying to do it; they are already doing it.
Aggarwal asserted that his company has successfully operationalized the dry electrode coating process and that cells manufactured using this advanced technique are already powering vehicles on the road. This claim places the Indian manufacturer in a very exclusive club, as the dry coating process has been a notorious bottleneck for global giants, including Tesla, who have spent years trying to perfect the technique for high-volume production.
To understand why this exchange matters, one has to look at how batteries are made today. The conventional "wet process" involves mixing active chemical materials with toxic solvents to create a slurry. This slurry is then coated onto metal foils and passed through massive, energy-hungry drying ovens that are hundreds of meters long. This step is expensive, consumes a vast amount of factory floor space, and requires complex solvent recovery systems to prevent pollution.
The "dry process" that Aggarwal claims to have mastered skips the liquid solvent entirely. It coats the electrode material directly as a dry powder. If successful, this method reduces manufacturing energy consumption by an estimated 30 percent, cuts factory footprint by up to 50 percent, and significantly lowers the capital investment needed for a Gigafactory. For the consumer, the benefits are equally critical: the dry process allows for thicker electrodes, which translates to higher energy density. In simple terms, you get more range from a battery of the same physical size.
Ola Electric’s claim centers on its "Bharat Cell," a 4680-format cylindrical cell (46mm diameter, 80mm height). Aggarwal revealed that development on this technology began in early 2022. By 2023, the company had established pilot lines, and by early 2024, they were successfully manufacturing cells with dry coating on both the anode and cathode.
The company’s Gigafactory in Tamil Nadu is the hub for this innovation. Aggarwal noted that "lakhs" of these cells are currently in use, implying that the technology has moved well beyond the laboratory phase and is surviving real-world abuse in Ola’s scooters. This is a crucial distinction, as many battery breakthroughs fail when moving from a controlled lab environment to the heat, vibration, and charging cycles of daily traffic.
If Ola’s claims hold up under scrutiny, it marks a pivotal shift in the global battery supply chain. Currently, most EV manufacturers rely on cells imported from China or South Korea.
By mastering the dry electrode process locally, Ola Electric can theoretically produce batteries cheaper than competitors who are still using the energy-intensive wet process.
This vertical integration, owning the tech from the chemical powder to the finished scooter, is the same playbook Tesla used to dominate the US market. For the average buyer, this technology race is good news: it is the primary driver that will eventually bring EV prices down to match petrol scooters without relying on government subsidies.