Mumbai: In a bid to diversify its product portfolio, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) is foraying into energy storage and batteries for electric vehicles (EVs), Chairman Sanjiv Singh said. To make this happen, IOC has tied up with an overseas start-up and is going to set up a 1 GW plant to make batteries, he added. The plant will use a non-lithium ion raw material that is locally available.
"The lithium-ion battery we see today is not the only answer or is the best answer. For a country like India, we don't have a single grain of lithium. So, if you are looking at EVs in a very big way, we have to look for something which is indigenously available. We have already tied-up with one company. We are working on a solution which can be manufactured 100 percent indigenously," Singh said while speaking to the press after the company's annual general meeting. Indian Oil's Director for Research and Development, Dr SS V Ram Kumar, said that the planned battery plant will use "chemistries which are India-centric, whose raw material is easily available in this country, whose recycling technology is extremely mature, and whose recycling industry is well established in this country." He said that it will use "transition group of elements."
The oil marketing company (OMC) said that it has a strategic intent to scale up its presence in e-mobility. It added that it is also looking to equip customer touch-points with turbo-charging and battery-swapping facilities for EVs and plug-in hybrids.
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