There is no doubt India is one of the biggest emerging battery markets in the world, but a lack of manufacturing facilities means it had to import $1.2 billion (₹8,777crore) worth of lithium-ion in 2019.
India imported 713 million lithium-ion batteries from 1 January to 30 November last year, more than doubling imports of the technology within three years.
The country’s Union Science Ministry gave the figures to ministers at the country’s Lok Sabha— the lower house of it bicameral parliament, according to the news outlet Hindi Times.
In 2016, the country imported 175 million lithium batteries, the following year it bought 313 million, rising to 712 million in 2018.
The majority of the lithium-ion batteries were supplied from China, Japan and South Korea.
Building a supply chain
To promote internal manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries, in March, 2019, the country’s Union Cabinet approved the ‘National Mission on Transformative Mobility and Battery Storage programme.
The programme includes roadmaps to implement battery manufacturing at Giga-scale including integrated cell manufacturing by 2021-22.
In the past few months, there have been a number of announcements for battery manufacturing facilities in the country.
Last month, it was reported that Indian conglomerate Tata Group was proposing to build a $113 million, 200MW plant, with the potential to scale up to 2GW depending on domestic and global demand.
The same month vehicle components maker Pinnacle Industries completed a lithium-ion battery assembly plant in the Indian state of Maharashtra to manufacture lithium-ion battery packs for electric vehicles following a partnership with China’s Phylion Battery Company
In October, Automotive Electronics Power Private announced plans to build a lithium-ion battery production facility in Hansalpur, in the state’s Ahmedabad district.
India’s biggest lead-acid battery maker, Exide Industries, is making lithium-ion cells from a plant in Gujarat, India, built through a joint venture with Switzerland-based Leclanché, with the goal of targeting India’s burgeoning electric vehicle market.
Last January, state-owned Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited announced it was in talks with LIBCOIN to build India’s first lithium-ion battery gigafactory— 1GWh scaling up to 30GWh.
LIBCOIN is a consortium made up of Magnis, Duggal Family Trust and Charge CCCV.
Electric vehicles are expected to account for a significant share in the growth of the lithium-ion battery demand in India from 2025, with the government pledging $1.4 billion to make India one of the largest manufacturing hubs for electric vehicles by 2040.
