In a major step forward, homegrown battery maker GODI recently announced that it has successfully manufactured the first batch of lithium-ion cells at its facility in Hyderabad.
"For the first time in history, in less than two years of inception of the company, GODI has manufactured NMC 21700 commercial-grade advanced lithium-ion cells," said Mahesh Godi, Founder and CEO of GODI.
Dedicating the success to his colleagues and the country, Mr. Godi, announced that the newly manufactured lithium-ion cells were the company's new year's gift to the electric vehicle OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and ESS (energy storage systems) providers.
As per reports, the commercial-grade battery cells manufactured by GODI will be soon made available for testing and validation to the EV OEMs and bulk deliveries will be made by late 2022.
Mr. Godi has confirmed that the company is in touch with all major OEMs for the product.
GODI has announced that it will continue upscaling the production facility and is planning to invest around $250 million by the end of 2022.
The latest news marks a major breakthrough in the Indian battery manufacturing space as there is no cell manufacturing currently taking place in India. Several Indian EV OEMs and ESS and battery solution providers heavily rely on China and South Korean battery cell imports to meet their EV and ESS manufacturing needs.
With the view to address this gap, the Government of India in May approved the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for the Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) Battery Storage with an outlay of ₹18,100 crores to achieve a battery manufacturing capacity of 50GWh and 5GWh of niche ACC, in India. Industry bodies, like India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA) anticipate bids of over 100 GWh to get submitted by 15th January, in response to the RFP issued by the Department of Heavy Industries for PLI.
As of today, the top five battery makers (CATL, LG Energy Solutions, Panasonic, BYD, and Samsung SDI) all come from Asia and collectively control more than 80 percent of the overall battery market, with China leading the race, followed by South Korea and Japan.
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