Amararara Raja Batteries The country’s first technology center for lithium-ion battery development was set up at its Tirupati plant in Andhra Pradesh. The advanced lithium-ion technology research center is a pilot project at the Tirupati headquarters and will be the first private sector oriented lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant in China in the coming years, Amara Raja Batteries CEO S Vijayanand told PTI. /p Since early 2019, the company has been working on a technology transfer agreement with the Indian Space Research Organization Cooperation (ISRO). Vijayanand said Amaraj has invested Rs 200 million excluding fees paid to ISRO in the center Technology transfer fees and tender fees. The company won the NSSO tender in January 2019 along with other 9 NSSOs. He said that no royalty is payable on the lithium-ion battery technology transfer agreement with ISRO. He said that the 10 companies which have been awarded the technology license will have to pay only the tender fee and technology transfer fee which has already been paid by Amarara Raja.

Vijayanandd Lead-acid batteries will continue to grow for at least the next couple of decades despite the strong push for lithium-ion batteries, while lithium batteries used in electric vehicles will take time to gain commercial traction. Currently, electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers import batteries mainly from China.

Initially three-wheelers and two-wheelers will dominate because they are more expensive than EVs, he said.

Vijayanand expects two-and three-wheelers to reach 20-25% penetration in China by 2025. These numbers favor more three-wheelers because they are more commercially viable and feasible, and this penetration could provide a critical mass for the use of electric vehicles.

The second phase is when the EV industry and its ecosystem will mature as passenger cars and commercial vehicles become electrified. This phase will occur in 2025-30 proceeding years. “I think personal four-wheelers should be introduced in 2025-27 The years begin,” he said.

In January 2019, ISRO selected 10 companies from a list of 141 companies and proposed the transfer of personal four-wheelers to these companies. Vikram Sarabhai Space Center (VSSC), Tumba Lithium-ion battery manufacturing technology is part of the government’s efforts to promote electric vehicles. VSSC It was originally developed for launching rockets and satellites.

The technology was licensed to 10 companies including Amararar Raja, Bharat Electronics Pune, Carborundum Universal Kochi, Exicom Tele-Systems Gurgaon, GOCL Corporation Hyderabad Jyoti CNC Automation Rajkot, Nalcom Bhubaneswar, Sukhbir Agro Energy Delhi, Tata Chemicals and Thermax.

However, none of them have started production and Amara Raja is the first company to set up a development center for this purpose.

ISRO will help these companies to set up lithium-ion battery manufacturing facilities and train their employees based on technology transfer.

Vijayanand also said that the development of GM electric vehicles and lithium-ion batteries should receive a government subsidy of Rs 1,800 crore, especially under the Rs 1,600 crore incentive (PLI) scheme announced in November last year.

The PLI program has allocated Rs 180 billion for advanced battery chemistry aimed at bringing at least 500 gigawatts (GW) of lithium-ion batteries to market.

He added, “We will see the success of the program in the next two to three years.”

On the supply of raw materials to facilitate localized production of lithium batteries, he said more than two-thirds should be supplied domestically and only key minerals should be imported. To this end, the government has held discussions with many mineral-rich countries in Central and South America, including Australia.

Meanwhile, Tata Chemicals has also reportedly received an ISRO license and is expected to set up a lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant in Dolera, Gujarat soon.

Exide Industries, the market leader in lead-acid batteries, which is yet to get an ISRO, has also entered the space by setting up a lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant in Gujarat in partnership with Leclanche, a global provider of energy storage solutions.