National mission on battery storage to boost local manufacturing: SMEV

The setting up of the National Mission on Transformative Mobility and Battery Storage will encourage local manufacturing of batteries for electric vehicles (EVs), an industry body said Thursday.

Terming the Cabinet’s approval to the plan a “good move,” the Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV) also said that it would help in significantly reducing the cost of EVs.

Earlier in the day, the Union Cabinet at its meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the setting up of the Mission to drive clean, connected, shared and sustainable mobility initiatives in the country.

India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA) has also welcomed the government’s decision of setting up of National Mission on Transformative Mobility and Battery Storage.

Debi Prasad Dash, Executive Director of India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA) said “We welcome the cabinet’s decision on setting up of National Mission on Transformative Mobility and Battery Storage and creation of the Phased Manufacturing Programme (PMP) valid for five years till 2024 to support setting up of a few large scale, export competitive integrated batteries and cell manufacturing Giga plants in India. This announcement is the result of the work done over the past 6 years by India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA) along with various state agencies, as well as central government departments including MNRE, MOP, and NITI Aayog on different aspects related to energy storage policy. The mission also suggested to have the steering committee with representation of 8 ministries & departments, which will definitely bring appropriate co-ordination on appropriate policy creation.”

He further added “India has a significant market potential for batteries and electric vehicles. Electric vehicles are creating a big demand and due to this demand, the cost of batteries will further come down.  IESA estimates the market for energy storage would grow to over 300 GWh during 2018-25. IESA is working with various EV & charging infrastructure companies through its MOVE (Moving Onwards with Vehicle electrification) initiative to catalyze the adoption through indigenous manufacturing of EV components. Currently, more than 10 companies are doing module & Li-Ion pack assembling in India and we’re expecting 4-5 large companies to enter cell manufacturing in the next 2-3 years. With appropriate policy support through this mission, Indian companies will be able to diversify into energy storage business. Through Make In India initiative, India will able to compete with the countries like China, Australia, Germany, USA, Taiwan, South Korea other Li-Ion manufacturing countries”.

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