Transport Minister says to find alternatives for lithium-ion battery tech

The Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that India will be a manufacturing hub for electric vehicles within the next five years. He added that several countries dont wont to deal with China after the COVID-19 crisis which is an opportunity for India.

Lithium-ion battery

The Minister asked the Indian automotive companies to find alternatives for lithium-ion battery tech and boost their electric vehicle technology to fulfil the Indian government aims to become a global manufacturing hub for electric vehicles.

“I am confident that in five years Indian will become the number one hub for manufacturing electric buses, cars and two-wheelers. There is also a blessing in disguise that a majority of countries are not interested in dealing with China anymore. So, now there is a huge potential for India,” Gadkari said during a webinar titled as ‘India’s Electric Vehicle Roadmap Post COVID-19’.

Indian Government chalking out plans for New-Age Battery Technologies

Till now China is in top in terms of electric vehicle production in the world producing over 80 per cent of all EVs globally. As the country has the largest lithium reserves in the world benefited to them in the lithium-ion cell market. At current, the demand for the lithium-ion battery is high for manufacturing the small electric two-wheelers to electric commercial vehicles.

In India, many components of electric vehicles are manufactured but the battery cells have to be imported which incorporates a huge portion of the cost. There has been a lot of research is going on to find alternatives to lithium-ion batteries, for example, sodium-ion and aluminium cells, however, the new technologies are not as extensively tested and trusted as lithium-ion.

The Minister also mentioned the possibilities of the income tax benefits for research undertaken in this field. The minister has offered support for “any scheme which will help us become self-dependent. It is time for Indian scientists, innovators and startups to find out Indian alternatives to everything”.

UK company Faradion working on sodium-ion battery technology for India

A British based company, Faradion has recently announced a sodium-ion battery technology and partnered with Infraprime Logistics Technologies (IPLTech) for its high energy sodium-ion batteries to use in commercial vehicles for the Indian market.

The company is also planning to set up a battery manufacturing plant in India. The manufacturer of sodium-ion cells company will mainly focus on the local market for electric vehicle and mobile devices with its sodium-ion battery technology.

The sodium-ion technology offers the same performance replacing the expensive materials such as cobalt and lithium with sodium.

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The company in a statement said “India is one of the largest markets for mobile devices across the world. Recently, the country has also demonstrated significant progress in the adoption of EV (Electric Vehicle) technology, making it a priority market for Faradion.”

Samsung develops solid-state battery technology

South Korean multinational conglomerate Samsung Electronics has announced that it has developed a solid-state battery technology that provides a range of electric vehicles of 500 miles (800 km) on a single charge. The battery which is developed for electric vehicles has a life cycle of over 1,000 charges.

The company noticed that the technology is half the size of a conventional lithium-ion battery which is achieved by decreasing the anode thickness. The company said in a statement “The prototype pouch cell that the team developed would enable an EV to travel up to 800 kilometres on a single charge and features a cycle life of over 1,000 charges.”

The Samsung researchers in South Korea and Japan carried out the study. The new battery developed is fire resistant as it uses solid materials and no toxic chemicals have been added. It is having energy densities up to 2.5 the times as its counterpart.

Indian Oil partners to build 1 GW EV battery plant

The State-run oil refiner Indian Oil Corporation Ltd has also announced last year that it will set up a 1 Giga Watt (GW) plant to make batteries for the electric vehicles in partnership with an overseas start-up using a non-lithium raw material which is available locally.

Every day 40 km of highways are constructed in India and the market for roads and highways is projected to grow at an annual rate of 36% from now to 2025.

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