Indian minister Pandey calls on automotive research association ARAI to be innovative in reducing charging times for EVs

14. April 2022

Industry Minister Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey is advising the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) to develop technologies to reduce charging times of EVs. “The automotive sector currently contributes between 14 and 15 percent to GDP and is expected to increase to 25 to 30 percent,” he said at a meeting with various industry associations. According to him, sales of EVs have surged in recent months due to government subsidies. However, there are currently bottlenecks in charging infrastructure as well as ambiguities for the electricity price at charging stations. Cars and their components must be certified in India according to AIS guidelines.

As there is currently the most urgent need to catch up on available charging stations, the government has selected nine expressways where 6,000 charging stations will be tendered, 3,000 of which will be installed in the near future. At present, cell chemical components for the production of electric car batteries are all imported, according to the minister. Since about 30 percent of the cost of an EV is the battery, Pandey suggests local manufacturing of cells and batteries for EVs to save costs. This is possible, he said, because 70 percent of the raw materials for manufacturing lithium-ion batteries are already available in India. Here, the minister points to the recently introduced subsidies under the PLI (production-linked incentive) program for the automotive industry, which includes the electric vehicle sector.

In addition, the Indian government extended the FAME I and II subsidy programs for faster adoption and local manufacturing of hybrid and electric vehicles for another two years until March 2024. According to information from the industry minister, 8 to 13 percent of auto suppliers and 13 to 18 percent of EV manufacturers benefit from these subsidies. It was also announced that ARAI will build a battery testing laboratory at its Chakan site near the city of Pune. The new lab’s facilities will mainly be used for tests regarding the safety of batteries for use in hybrid and EV cars.

AIS stands for Automotive Industry Standards, the technical automotive standards for India, while TAC stands for Type Approval Certificate. This kind of automotive product certifiation is conducted by authorities like the International Center for Automotive Technology (iCAT).

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