In an effort to strengthen the EV infrastructure in the nation, three Indian companies, including Ola Electric are selected for producing locally produced electric car battery cells.
Ola Electric, Reliance New Energy, and Rajesh Exports have signed contracts worth 18,100 crores under the Indian government’s Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme to develop and manufacture EV batteries. Ola Electric, a company that now makes electric scooters, plans to release its first electric car soon.
Ola Electric is already looking for partners to establish a new facility where it will work on the electric car and produce EV batteries.
The three companies, which have been chosen as part of the PLI programme of the Government, are anticipated to produce 95 GWh of batteries. Within two years, they will need to put up a manufacturing facility. Companies will receive incentives for the following five years on the sale of manufactured EV batteries. The demand for EVs and renewable energy sources would be supported, and this will draw investment to the industry, according to Mahendra Nath Pandey, Union Minister for Heavy Industries.
Ola Electric and the other two companies were chosen from a group of ten bids competing for the chance to establish a manufacturing facility with a 128 GWh capacity under the PLI Scheme.
An indigenous lithium-ion battery cell that is slated to be manufactured starting in 2019 was previously displayed by Ola Electric. According to Ola Electric, the battery is a high nickel cylindrical cell that uses NMC on the cathode side and silicon and graphite on the anode side.
Bhavish Aggarwal, CEO of Ola Electric, had said, “Ola is building the world’s most advanced cell research centre that will enable us to scale and innovate faster, and build the most advanced and affordable EV products in the world with speed. Our first indigenously made Li-ion cell is also the first of many in our cell technology roadmap. Having a robust local EV ecosystem is important for India to become a global EV hub,
The Secretary to the Ministry of Heavy Industries Arun Goel said, “Now it’s the time for private players to take the lead and become global champions and also make the country the global hub in the energy storage segment.”
In a statement, the Minister for Heavy Industries, Mahendra Nath Pandey said that the scheme would favour the electric vehicle (EV) ecosystem and the battery manufacturing market since the PLI scheme would support the demand for EVs and renewables in the market and therefore attract investment in the sector.
As a practical substitute for internal combustion vehicles, EVs have progressively gained appeal among Indians. The Ministry of Heavy Industries’ most recent figures show that Indian companies have so far sold 13.34 lakh electric vehicles, or roughly 0.5% of all the country’s road vehicles.
Following many instances of their vehicles catching fire, electric mobility startups such Ola Electric, Aether Energy, and Okinawa have all come under fire. The quality of batteries, which are primarily sourced from China, was blamed for the problem. It will therefore be fascinating to explore how PLI programme participants might create batteries that are more suited for the Indian use case.
