Battery woes tripping up India’s electric vehicles dreams

Even as India has lined up an ambitious plan to promote electric vehicles (EV), the availability of top-quality lithium-ion batteries remains a pain point for EV companies, since local manufacturing is yet to take off and EV makers depend on China for imports.“With all the policy push, it is good to see many automobile companies coming up with EV models. But, the supply of the lithium-ion batteries still remains a matter of concern. Currently, the supply of this crucial component is much below demand and a large portion of this demand is met by imports. The timeline for EV transition is also ambitious and the huge dependency on imports will not help the industry in the long run,” said a senior executive from Hero Future Energy.

Batteries comprise 30 per cent of the cost of an EV, one of the most expensive components in the entire unit, and the Indian government is planning to get local manufacturing of these batteries up and running as soon as possible.