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New Indian EV battery policy to determine response to Bolivia lithium invite

31st July 2018

By: Ajoy K Das

Creamer Media Correspondent

     

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KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) – An Indian government policy advisory body will publish a policy offering subsidies for lithium-based electric vehicle (EV) battery manufacturing, which will determine the response to an invitation from the Bolivian government for joint ventures (JVs) in lithium-rich Latin American nation.

The National Institute for Transformation of India (NITI Aayog) is working on a comprehensive framework for EV battery manufacturing, including options of government subsidies for exploration, development of raw materials and battery manufacturing. The report is expected to be published October.

Government officials said that Indian investors in the entire chain of EV battery manufacturing would await the proposed policy, including the level of subsidies offered by the government, before deciding on future investment plans, including the invitation from the Bolivian government for JVs in that country.

The Bolivian government though its diplomatic channels in India has offered an invitation to Indian companies to invest in JVs for EV battery manufacturing with backward integration to large lithium reserves in that country, officials here said.

It was pointed out that the understanding from the investment invitation was that the Bolivian government favoured investments through JVs into manufacturing a value-added EV ancillary product range instead of pure play mineral exploration and production and shipping battery raw materials back to India.

The Bolivian government has sought investing partners for its State-owned lithium mine owner—Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos—to be part of a manufacturing chain in Bolivia rather than the latter being a mere exporter of lithium mineral to India, the officials added.

The Bolivian government has also proposed a free trade agreement (FTA) with India to facilitate tariff-free trade between the two countries for such JVs in high value EV components.

Besides the subsidy element, the NITI Aayog paper will lay down the roadmap for aligning India’s EV battery raw material interest with the new lithium policy of Bolivia, the official said.

For one, the consortium of Indian companies currently scouting overseas sources of EV battery minerals might have to be tweaked to add battery manufacturing capabilities to the existing pure mining expertise of the existing consortium members.

As reported by Mining Weekly Online, the Indian government last month directed all State-owned minerals companies to pool their resources to acquire lithium and cobalt assets overseas.

A rough deadline of March 2019 was set by the government for these minerals companies to complete all formalities such as leveraging their balance sheets jointly, to form JVs, consortiums or any such suitable corporate structures so that process of scouting and acquiring lithium and cobalt assets could get under way next financial year.

A new policy framework and quantum of subsidies on offer would open up the option of getting Indian EV battery manufacturers from the private sector to join hands with pure mineral based companies to leverage the opening up of the Bolivian investment window.

The Raasi Group is investing in setting up the largest Indian EV battery manufacturing plant in southern India with technology developed by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

Large Indian industrial conglomerates Reliance Industries and Adani Group too were mulling EV battery manufacturing investments, while Exide Industries, the largest Indian automotive battery producer, last month announced its entry into EV battery manufacturing Leclanche SA of Switzerland.

Edited by Mariaan Webb
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor Online

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