Union Cabinet Sanctions National Mission on Transformative Mobility and Battery Storage

The Union Cabinet has announced that it has sanctioned the National Mission on Transformative Mobility and Battery Storage

“The Mission will have an Inter-Ministerial Steering Committee chaired by Chief Executive Officer (CEO), NITI Aayog to promote clean, connected, shared, sustainable and holistic mobility initiatives. The Mission will also launch the Phased Manufacturing Programmes (PMP) for Batteries and for Electric Vehicle components” official declaration said.

The National Mission on Transformative Mobility and Battery Storage will conclude and implement policies for transformative mobility and Phased Manufacturing Programmes (PMP) for electric vehicles, their components and batteries.

The Mission will settle the details of PMP for Electric Vehicle ecosystem and drive its implementation. The particulars of the value addition that can be accomplished with each phase of localization will be finalized by the Mission with a clear ‘Make in India’ approach for EV components as well as battery technologies, the statement believed.

A phased roadmap to implement battery manufacturing at giga-scale will be a preliminary focus on large-scale module and pack assembly plants by 2019-2020. This will be trailed by integrated cell manufacturing by 2021-2022. Details of the PMP for Batteries shall be conveyed by the Mission. The Mission will certify complete and comprehensive growth of the battery manufacturing industry in India.

Speaking on the occasion, Debi Prasad Dash, Executive Director of India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA), India’s leading alliance on energy storage says “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.

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”.