Rama Krishna Sangem
A major gigawatt battery production project is on. The Ministry of Heavy Electricals (MHI) announced on April 23, Tuesday that seven bids had been received under a global tender for the rebidding of Production Linked Incentives (PLI) aimed at supporting the manufacturing of Electric Vehicle (EV) batteries, specifically 10 GigaWatt hours (GWh) Advanced Chemistry Cells (ACC).
The bidders, comprising ACME Cleantech Solutions Private Limited, Amara Raja Advanced Cell Technologies Private Limited, Anvi Power Industries Private Limited, JSW Neo Energy Limited, Reliance Industries Limited, Lucas TVS Limited, and Waaree Energies Limited, have collectively applied for a cumulative capacity of 70 GWh, the Ministry said in a press release.
This initiative falls under the National Programme on ACC Battery Storage PLI Scheme, which was introduced in January 2024 with a maximum budgetary allocation of Rs 3,620 crore. The scheme, approved by the Cabinet in May 2021, aims to achieve a manufacturing capacity of 50 GWh of ACC with an outlay of Rs 18,100 Crore.
Following a pre-bid meeting held by the government on February 12, 2024, applications were to be submitted by April 22, 2024, through the CPP portal. Subsequently, on April 23, 2024, the technical bids were opened.
PLI linked clean energy
In 2022, the government awarded PLI support to establish 30 GWh of ACC battery manufacturing capacity by 2030. Notably, Ola Cell Technologies secured the majority share with a 20 GWh capacity. Additionally, ACC Energy Storage (bid as Rajesh Exports) and Reliance New Energy Battery Storage were granted incentives for 5 GWh each.
The 20 GWh PLI capacity being rebid was originally assigned to Hyundai Global Motors, a company purportedly posing as the South Korean firm Hyundai Motor Co.
Under the ACC initiative, the government’s emphasis is to achieve greater domestic value addition while at the same time ensuring that the cost of battery manufacturing in India is globally competitive.
