KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) – Indian State-run oil refiner-marketer, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) will foray into electric vehicle (EV) battery manufacturing as part of its strategy to evolve into a "future-ready comprehensive energy solutions company".

The oil company is working out a partnership with an overseas start-up to source technology to manufacture alumina-based storage batteries, instead of lithium-based batteries.

“The lithium-ion batteries that we see today are not the only answer. We don’t have lithium in India and so if we are looking at EVs in a big way, we have to look at something which is indigenously available. We have already tied up with one company and we are working on a solution which can be manufactured 100% indigenously,” IOC chairperson Sanjiv Singh told shareholders of the company.

“We have a strategic intent to scale up our presence in e-mobility by equipping customers' touch points with turbo-charging and battery swapping facilities for EVs and plug-in hybrids,” he added.

The proposed battery manufacturing project will be undertaken through a special purpose vehicle, in collaboration with its overseas technology provider, with the option of roping in other foreign partners, which could offer suitable technologies and expertise.

The project location could be around any one of the major automobile manufacturing hubs in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, in southern India or Gujarat in the west. The goal is to develop and construct capacities of at least 1 GW of domestic capacity.

IOC’s venture into non-lithium-based EV batteries is in line with government’s aim to reduce import dependency considering that almost all EVs currently operated are powered by batteries imported from China. Of course, while the official stand of the government is 'technology agnostic’ as far as EV battery manufacturing is concerned, import dependency for raw material inputs is nonetheless a primary concern.

“We should be very careful about substituting one energy import – crude oil – with another. Only shifting import dependency from one to another would not make strategic sense. That is the reason why government companies like IOC are being nudged to explore and develop indigenous alternatives early because once a technology gets entrenched and investments are committed it is difficult to change focus and make a transition,” a government official said.