Indian Oil Corp, Israel’s Phinergy sign JV to produce metal-air batteries

Indian Oil Corp, the country’s top refiner, has bought a minority stake in Israel’s Phinergy and signed a joint venture deal to produce metal-air batteries, an alternative to more mainstream lithium technology.

IOC Chairman Sanjiv Singh said the IOC could use its vast retail network to supply the automotive sector in India, where the government is pushing for a shift to electric vehicles to cut pollution and lower the country’s fuel import bill.

“We are confident that this Al-Air battery technology would complement lithium-ion batteries to provide a hybrid solution for the large-scale adoption of electric vehicles,” he said in a company statement on Tuesday.

The statement did not specify the size of the stake or how much the IOC had paid for it.