India imports almost all of its Li-Ion battery requirements, however the government intends to change this by pushing for the setup of giga manufacturing plants in the country. In line with the government’s stated goal of having 30% of Indian road vehicles being electric by 2030, the Union Cabinet, in March 2019, approved the setting up of a National Misson on Transformative Mobility and Battery Storage in this regard, and aims to have at least 3-4 giga plants established in the next 2-3 years.
The proposed capacity for lithium-ion battery-manufacturing base is now set at 50GW, and related tenders worth $50 billion are planned to be opened soon. The government is offering incentives such as import and export duty waivers, which will be applicable to the successful bidders until 2030.
In connection to this, the Telangana government has pitched for a 5GW lithium-ion plant and public sector consortium Khanij Bidesh India Ltd (KABIL) has sent a delegation to the ‘Lithium Triangle’ i.e Argentina, Bolivia and Chile to explore acquisition of lithium and cobalt reserves as these are essential to the manufacturing of li-ion batteries.
