HYDERABAD: India’s journey of becoming a country that furthers the production and use of electric vehicles (EV) has several hurdles. The foremost being the lack of availability of lithium, which constitutes the most significant component of an EV, namely the rechargeable battery. As of now, India’s EV production completely relies on imports from China.
“There are very few battery manufacturing units in India. The country is taking efforts to ensure the industry’s growth, to indegenise battery production. The primary focus is on producing lithium-ion batteries,” said Dr VK Saraswat, a NITI Aayog member, while speaking at IIT-H during the launch of ‘EPluto 7G’ on Sunday.
“Getting hold of lithium-ion is a big hurdle as we do not produce lithium in our country. We don’t have cobalt that helps make cathodes for rechargeable batteries,” he said.
“The Central government is planning to acquire lithium mines at the lithium triangle belt that lies within Argentina, Bolivia and Chile. We have approached these countries. Discussions are active, but nothing has materialised yet. We have to get industrialists in these areas to acquire lithium. This will happen soon,” he added.