The approval by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for the commercial use of the lithium-ion battery technology it has developed is a shot in the arm for the central government’s electric vehicles initiative. However, it comes with a caveat, as battery manufacturers will need to pay ₹ 10 million to ISRO as a one-time technology transfer fee.
By Baishakhi Dutta
The lithium-ion battery technology it developed was originally meant for space applications, but ISRO has finally agreed to transfer it at a cost to interested companies in order to promote mass production of e-vehicles in India. Use of this indigenous battery technology is expected to cut down the price of e-vehicles, which at present is dependent on costly imported batteries.
The lithium-ion battery technology was developed by the space agency in Thiruvananthapuram at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC). These batteries are currently used in satellites and launch vehicles.
VSSC has developed lithium-ion cells with four capacities—1.5Ah, 5Ah, 50Ah and 100Ah. Of these four cells, ISRO has allowed the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), a government approved vehicle testing body, to use the 50Ah and 100Ah cells for developing the prototypes for an e-scooter and an e-car, respectively. It is expected that the widespread commercial use of these advanced batteries will cut down the production cost of the e-vehicles.
However, Indian industry experts still believe that electric vehicle technology is at a nascent stage, comes at a high price and the ecosystem for it is yet to develop.
A major obstacle right now is the customer’s scepticism towards the reliability of electric vehicles. Finances are also a genuine concern, as officials advise the evaluation of the economic consequences of the deployment of electric vehicles on a large scale. While the cost of the current diesel buses varies between ₹ 2 million and ₹ 5 million, the price of an ordinary electric bus with assured procurement volumes is approximately ₹ 15 million. Commercialisation of ISRO’s technology is expected to save around 10-15 per cent of this cost.
Risk of flammability of the lithium-ion batteries also needs to be kept in mind. This will become a technological challenge once weather conditions start weighing in. Cooling the battery will raise operational expenses.
As of now, given the costs, electric vehicles justify deployment as public transport buses, taxis and three-wheelers only. Creating a demand for e-vehicles is also important. ISRO and BHEL are currently collaborating for the development of cheaper lithium-ion batteries for e-vehicles.
To analyse the impact of this technology on the Indian power electronics sector, the Electronics Bazaar team reached out to a couple of experts in the industry, and asked for their reactions and expectations with respect to this technology. Their views with respect to the effectiveness of the new technology are given separately (see box).
Expert views
Kapil Sood, CEO, Fusion Power Systems
The success and popularity of electric vehicles in the near future is not totally dependent on battery technology, as the battery is just a part of the electric vehicle. Their success will depend on many factors such as government policies and regulations, incentives and subsidies, support to the manufacturing industry, availability of charging stations, etc.
The technology developed by ISRO is definitely going to help the Indian battery industry, which is dependent on China and Japan for the same at present. In fact, there is hardly any manufacturing in India for the sealed-acid batteries and lithium batteries are not produced in India at all.
India has set a very lofty goal of achieving the complete electrification of its entire vehicle fleet by 2030, but the initial push just does not seem to be happening. Even the 2020 target of 6-7 million hybrid and electric vehicles looks like wishful thinking at the moment, given the paucity of economically viable EVs and the lack of a charging infrastructure.
Currently, the Indian state hardly has any charging points for its EVs, most of which have been built by private EV makers such as Mahindra. Compare this to the more than 30,000-50,000 charging points in countries such as China, USA and Japan. The mobility is highly limited if you own an EV in India right now, as you can travel to very few places with this kind of charging network. Apart from the problem of not finding charging points, electric vehicles also have the problem of the time that is wasted in charging a car. It takes almost 8 hours for a Level 1 charging to power up a car, while Level 2 charging takes 3-4 hours. So the EV batteries can only be charged at night.
Manufacturers must identify the battery chemistry that is best suited to Indian usage and weather conditions, in terms of commercial viability, availability of raw materials to manufacture the battery, scale and size of the plant, and the machinery required to produce that battery.
Biju Bruno, proprietor, Greenvision Technologies
“Electric vehicles will undoubtedly remove pollution and will cut down the cost per km travelled. They will eliminate our oil import bill and drastically change the balance of trade situation. ISRO should be willing to license the technology, to the private companies interested in acquiring it, on a market-driven price model and on a non-exclusive basis. There’s no guarantee that any one company will be able to apply this technology and come out with cost-competitive and quality batteries in mass production. By giving it to many, the chances of this technology finding the light of day is much better.
“The individual manufacturers would still have to figure out mass production processes that will be able to use this technology and those with the best process, capital etc, will be able to succeed.
“The biggest challenge that will face India is the availability of quality technical manpower in the battery industry. The second challenge is whether any company in the private sector will be willing to bet large sums of money on a technology that has not seen mass production, since Li-ion battery manufacture requires heavy investment.
“The government has stated its intent clearly to push e-vehicles and have a full conversion to these by 2030. How much of this happens, remains to be seen. It makes sense to start with two-wheelers and three-wheelers, which can be adapted quickly and sell in huge volumes in India. However, e-scooters have been a super flop in India. Everyone blames the battery. But from my personal experience, the overall quality of the vehicles is a disaster. The government can focus on developing technology and standards for batteries, electric motors and other components by investing in the same, and then license the technology out on a non-exclusive basis to entrepreneurs who want to get into mass manufacturing.”
Samrath S. Kochar, director, Trontek
“China has far better technology than ISRO for lithium-ion batteries for EVs. Li-ion batteries for EVs are duty-free, so no company in India would like to invest in the manufacture of this battery using the ISRO technology. Even if companies like Suzuki, Toshiba and Denso start making Li-ion packs in India, they would use Japanese technology rather than ISRO’s technology.”
