EVs

Previously, a mere €240 million (Rs1,870 crore) was set to flow into the giga-factory. The corporation’s management reasoned new demand for its battery cells made more investment necessary.

Central government has thrown down the gauntlet to the nation’s largest motorbike and scooter manufacturers after they resisted a proposal to ban non-electric sales from 2025 onwards.

The German battery manufacturer will make products for electric trucks and buses at the facility, which is expected to employ 200 workers and produce 400 megawatt-hours of batteries annually.

The unqualified success of the Aditya solar passenger ferry, which took to the water in 2017, has prompted the water transport body to make plans for a more luxurious form of transport which is due for launch within four months.

The success of the e-bike cycling tours – which operate out of recycled shipping container ‘e hubs’ – looks set to be replicated in four more states in short order.

The NITI Aayog has suggested banning sales of non-electric two and three wheelers in 2025 and cars, trucks and buses five years later as well as forcing public fleets and the cars used by ride hailing apps to be electric.

In news that will add urgency to Indian government efforts to establish a domestic storage industry, funding has apparently been secured for 16 GWh-plus production lines in Sweden and Germany. Is India at risk of being left in the starting blocks?

A report on the prospects for a mooted $2.6tn electric vehicle market over the next decade says PHEVs – part electric, part gas-guzzling – are already losing market share rapidly to pure electric rivals, and will be extinct by 2030.

Following the Indian government’s 40 GW plan for the states, Telangana has pitched for setting up a 5 GW lithium ion plant by announcing the ready availability of 200 acres of land and power and water for the fab at a concessional rate.

The acquisition would be made through Khanij Bidesh India Ltd (KABIL)—a joint venture of three public-sector mining units—which recently visited the Lithium Triangle countries in South America (Chile, Argentina and Bolivia) to explore the possibility of lithium acquisition.