Government of India’s policy maker, NITI Aayog, has recently made an official statement that they are inviting stakeholders for the establishment of giga factories in India for the manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries, which is a basic necessity for powering electric Vehicles, in the upcoming years to come.
However, ‘GigaFactory‘ is a tag name assigned to lithium-ion battery and electric vehicle sub-assembly factory of Elon Musk-promoted Tesla, Inc.
It is one of the important initiative of NITI Aayog’s earlier proposal, the recommendation has proposed that giga factories to be laid out as soon as possible for making lithium-ion batteries in India and at least three-four factories to be built in the next two-three years.
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Earlier proposal by NITI Aayog, which is being facing industry backlash, has suggested that post March 31, 2023 only electric (lithium-ion or other advanced battery chemistry only) two and three -wheelers would be sold in the country after and all new sales of two-wheelers below 150cc would be electric post March 31, 2025.
Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog, tweeted “We have proposed in this mission that giga factories be established for making lithium-ion batteries in India. We want at least three-four factories to come up in the next two-three years.”
“When the policy (moving to electric two and three-wheelers) comes into effect, you will have domestically produced lithium-ion batteries or other advanced technology batteries,” said Rajiv Kumar in a statement to The Hindu.
According to Kumar, Electric Vehicle batteries was a sunrise industry and India needed to start building capabilities to become a globally competitive player in this area. “The lack of domestic capability will result in massive imports as is the case in electronics,” he said.
Mr Rajiv Kumar also said that working towards finding lithium-ion and with the advancement of technology, it was likely that it may be replaced with other advanced batteries.
In the recent past back in September 2018, in a concern a message was given to India by Chairman of Japan’s Suzuki Motor had said that Indian ambition of all-electric vehicles on road by 2032 can seriously hamper if India do not start manufacturing batteries used by electric vehicles (EVs) domestically in India.
Few weeks later after that the Prime Minister Office (PMO) had asked department of heavy industry to redraft its proposal to offer huge subsidies and incentives of as much as $759 million (₹5,500 crore), which will mostly be use to encourage local manufacturing of lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries used in Electric Vehicles.
To give boost for implementation of electric mobility in India, Indian government has initiated various steps recently. Last month, it was reported that government of India is planning to make compulsory for cab aggregators such Uber and Ola to convert 40 Percent of their fleet of cars to be fully electric by April 2026.
In March,2019 The Union cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the proposal for implementation of Phase-2 of Electric Vehicle Scheme ‘Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles in India’ (FAME) that include approval of a $1.4 Billion package, which will offer car buyers in the country upfront incentives on purchase of electric vehicles. The package announced will also be used for setting up charging infrastructure and focusing on electrification of public transport.
In June, 2019, Lucknow-based Sahara India Pariwar also announced its mega plans for its entry in to the automobile sector with its new electric vehicle (EV) brand called Sahara Evols.