Reenergizing the vehicular market of India with electrification, Ministry of Heavy Industries has recently signed PLI Scheme pacts with Ola Electric, Reliance New Energy Ltd and Rajesh Exports.
The pact has been signed under the Production-Linked Incentive or PLI Scheme for advanced cell chemistry (ACC) battery manufacturing.
The government had received 10 bids from companies with offers to set up 128 Gigawatt-hours (GWh) of battery capacity under the scheme. Only three companies mentioned above made it to the final selection.
The government said that Ola Electric, Reliance New Energy and Rajesh Exports would receive incentives under the INR 18,100 Cr PLI scheme. Further, the government is expecting a battery manufacturing capacity of around 95 GWh to be set up by these companies.
The PLI scheme for advanced cell chemistry required the manufacturing facility to be set up within two years. The government will disburse the incentive over five years on the sale of batteries manufactured in India.
The scheme is technology agnostic and is concerned with only the stipulated battery capacity manufactured by the participants of the scheme. As such, companies are free to choose any technology, raw materials, plant and machinery and other goods to set up their respective manufacturing facilities.
In a statement, the Minister for Heavy Industries, Mahendra Nath Pandey said that the scheme would favor the electric vehicle (EV) ecosystem and the battery manufacturing market since the PLI scheme would support the demand for EVs and renewables in the market and therefore attract investment in the sector.
The Secretary to the Ministry of Heavy Industries Arun Goel said, “Now it’s the time for private players to take the lead and become global champions and also make the country the global hub in the energy storage segment.”
Ola Electric had signed the pact with the government late last month, with Reliance New Energy and Rajesh Exports signing the pact for EV battery manufacturing in quick succession.