State-run oil refiner and marketer Indian Oil Corporation Ltd is foraying into energy storage and batteries for running electric vehicles (EVs) in partnership with an overseas start-up, using a non-lithium ion raw material available locally, Chairman Sanjiv Singh said today in Mumbai.
“The lithium-ion battery we see today is not the only answer. We don’t lithium in India so, if you are looking at EVs in a big way, we have to look for 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," Singh told media persons post the company's annual general meeting in Mumbai.
IOCL said it has a strategic intent to scale up its presence in the e-mobility as well as equipping customer touch-points with turbo-charging and battery-swapping facilities for EVs and plug-in hybrids.
According to IOCL’s director for Research and Development SSV Ram Kumar, the battery plant will use “chemistries which are India-centric, whose raw material is easily available in this country and whose recycling industry is well established in this country."
The battery plant may be set up through a special purpose vehicle (SPV) formed by IOC and the overseas entity. “We may rope in another interested player, it could be anybody who brings in some expertise and synergies to this venture," said Ram Kumar.
