Energetica India Magazine March 2022

Increase in Self-Reliance to Decrease Import-Dependency Currently, India has limited capacity for battery pack manufacturing and al- most no battery cell manufacturing at scale. The economy completely relies on imports for LIBs which have increased three-fold4 from USD 384 million in FY2017 to USD 1.2 billion in FY2019. To reduce this expensive import de- pendency, the Indian government has launched the Production-Linked Incen- tive (PLI) Scheme for manufacturing of Advance Chemistry Cell (ACC) batter- ies. Under the scheme, the government has approved a budget of INR 18,000 crore over five years to establish 50 GWh of ACC battery manufacturing and 5 GWh of niche ACC technologies. This is in line with the government’s Make in India5 campaign which was launched to facilitate investment, foster innovation energetica INDIA- Mar_2022 37 ELECTRIC VEHICLES and build best-in-class indigenous man- ufacturing facilities. A Robust Supply Chain for a Robust Economy Battery manufacturing can add ap- proximately 80 jobs for every GWh6 of capacity. EV market leaders like China and California (USA) boosted EV man- ufacturing in their country/state by mandating vehicle manufacturers to sell a certain percentage of their vehicles as battery-powered while simultaneously supporting manufacturers with produc- tion subsidies and tax credits. Similar strategies could be put into place by the government to attract industrial par- ticipation and shore up the Indian sup- ply chain in an industry often reliant on foreign battery components. Seven European countries7 and the US have already committed funding, in billions of USD, to support research into lith- ium-ion batteries, and both Tesla and General Motors are investing heavily8 in manufacturing facilities for the tech- nology. Similar measures can help in ensuring India does not transform from an oil-dependent to a ‘battery imports’ dependent nation. Circular Economy via Recycling Ecosys- tem The manufacturing of LIBs is re- source-intensive, accounting for 30-50% of an EV’s life-cycle emissions. This is because mineral extraction—especially for lithium and cobalt—requires copi- ous amounts of water and energy. The adoption of circular economy strategies for EV batteries, which includes second life applications and recycling of critical materials can help in reducing both the