India to add at least 1 GWh of lithium-ion manufacturing capacity
This year India will add more than 1 GWh of lithium-ion battery assembly capacity, with many companies entering the industry, stated the head of the India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA). India already has 1GWh of distributed lithium-ion battery deployed in applications including ATM machines and telecom towers, but to do so it had to import battery packs from other countries. Several firms have now set up assembly capacity in India and buy only the cells from Japan, South Korea and China.

However, Rahul Walawalkar, IESA executive director, told Energy-Storage.News that strong demand for batteries in such applications has continued. Therefore, since the end of last year, many firms have started setting up assembly capacity in India and only buying cells from the likes of China, Japan and Korea.

Walawalkar added: “There are multiple companies who are putting in 100MWh or more pack assembly capacity right now.”

Major companies including Acme, Delta, Exicom, to name a few, are all working on such facilities of various capacities. At least five companies have already completed plants, while several other projects are expected to be completed in the next two or three months, once equipment has been delivered. This week, Indian business newspaper Economic Times also reported that Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the nation's biggest fuel supplier, is developing batteries and other technology for energy storage applications. According to Economic Times, while IOC is mainly focusing on lead-acid, it is also working on lithium-ion battery chemistries.

Walawalkar also noted: “There are at least four or five additional companies who are right now at earlier stages; they have identified the land; they are finalising partnerships for procuring cells.”

The EV driver

However, the spring in lithium-ion battery manufacturing has not only been driven by stationary storage, since India is primed to become a major electric mobility market in the years to come. Energy minister Piyush Goyal – a huge fan of EVs – has set an extremely ambitious target to replace all vehicles with EVs by 2030. Already India has more than 600,000 E-rickshaws and similar number of electric two-wheelers, said Walawalkar. There are also innovative projects such as EV battery swapping stations. Acme introduced the first such station last month for the EV platform of SoftBank-funded taxi aggregator Ola in Nagpur, Maharashtra.

Acme’s EV battery swapping station in Nagpur. Credit: Acme

It is also well known that Suzuki Motor Corp, Toshiba Corp and Denso Corp are forming a joint venture to produce lithium-ion batteries for automobiles in India, planning to spend a total of ¥20 billion (US$183.74 million).

Lead-acid in the running