India’s Ola Electric is working on building solid-state batteries, the chief executive officer of the SoftBank Group-backed electric scooter maker said on Saturday.

"We are in very early stages of our experimentation on solid state batteries," said CEO Bhavish Aggarwal.

Solid-state batteries are expected to offer improved safety, a longer lifespan and faster charging compared with conventional lithium-ion batteries that use flammable liquid electrolytes. But mass adoption has proved difficult due to constraints in raw material availability, intricate manufacturing processes and the resultant high costs.

Japan’s Toyota Motor, the world’s largest automaker, is a big proponent of solid-state batteries and expects to launch them globally in the next few years.

(Reporting by Nandan Mandayam, writing by Nikunj Ohri, editing by Andrew Heavens and Christina Fincher)